


need a little sweetness in my life

by chankgyunie



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Family Dynamics, Kid Fic, M/M, Single Parent Qian Kun, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, baker ten, mentions of nomin, minor luwin, this is honestly a self-indulgent fic 'cause i love me some fluff, toddler hendery, toddler xiaojun, toddler yangyang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:33:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 28,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29008359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chankgyunie/pseuds/chankgyunie
Summary: "Well, I wouldn't say it's a crush..." Ten argued, putting some measured ingredients in the big yellow mixer he loved so much. "Do I find him very good looking and cute? Absolutely. Do I think he's an amazing dad? Of course. Do I also love his kids and sometimes imagine what it'd be like if I had a family like that? Also yes, but that doesn't mean I have a crush..."He turned around to see both Jaemin and Sicheng giving him tired looks."Tell that to the drool you leave on the counter every time they come around." Sicheng pointed out."Okay, okay, I might have a crush."(or: ten works at a bakery and daydreams about the hot dad that stops by every week with the triplets)
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 44
Kudos: 224





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi everyone!!! this is my first kunten fic yaay! i've been working on it for quite a while, you know, that comfort fic that's been there for me whenever I needed it, with my favorite type of trope: fluff family fic. so, i hope you guys like it as well and, if you do, please let me know what you think :)
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/chankgyunie)

Ten anxiously looked at the clock. It was 6:20 pm. They were twenty minutes late. That had never happened before, they were always on time.

"What if they don't come?" He turned to Sicheng, a frown on his forehead.

"Then they don't come." He shrugged.

"But what if this means they'll stop coming for good? What if I never get to see them again and I didn't even have the balls to have a proper conversation with them, only admiring from afar because I'm that much of a coward?!" He ranted, hands on the pockets of his pastel pink apron as he paced around the small space behind the counter. After a few seconds without getting an answer, he looked back at Sicheng, who was sitting on a stool with his back resting against the wall, playing games on his phone. "You're not listening to me."

At that, Sicheng sighed and paused the game, looking up at his best friend.

"You're the one who pulled me out of my job at the counter, so I have nothing else to do." He said, shrugging once again.

The Prism Bakery was small and its rush hours were usually during the morning or afternoon, so there were not a lot of people around that time, most of them going home from work.

Ten wasn't even supposed to be there, his job was to be in the kitchen helping Jaemin, his apprentice who worked part-time, to bake everything they didn't have in stock for the next morning. However, he knew they often came on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6, so he had to be there. Jaemin could hang in there for a while.

"I think you're overthinking. They might be late or something." Sicheng assured him.

Ten heard the tinkling of the bell on the entrance door and his head snapped towards it, an immediate smile spreading on his face as he saw the triplets come inside in excited skips while their dad held the door for them. The three year olds were all wearing padded colored coats that made them look like little candy marshmallows. They held each other's hands until they were inside, scattering to look through the displays of cakes, breads and other sweets, the yellow, blue and red little balls excitedly jumping and pointing at the new sweets being displayed.

"Guys, calm down, let's order first, alright?" Their dad told them, making his way to the counter. Ten quickly adjusted his posture at the back of the register, plastering a welcoming grin on his face. "Hi, how are you?" The man greeted him as he took off his gloves, returning his smile.

He was so breathtakingly good-looking, his smile threw Ten off. The man was wearing a beige trench coat, which he was in the process of taking off and holding it in his arm, showing the dark green sweater he was wearing underneath, very cozy. Over his eyes and perfectly shaped eyebrows, he wore a thin pair of round metal glasses, his hair pushed back with a few strands falling on his forehead. He was the man of Ten's dreams and he was almost sighing while looking at him, only the guy had been waiting for him to take his order.

"Oh, I'm fine." He finally answered, after realizing he had been staring for a bit. "What will it be today, sir?" 

The man's nose scrunched with the excessive politeness.

"Please don't call me sir, I already feel old enough by having three kids." He chuckled and Ten nodded, giggling too. The guy didn't look much older than him, probably around the same age, and yet Ten was nowhere near having a family like his. The man, then, turned to his kids who were still skipping from display to display to check out all of the options they had to order, their little mouths hanging in excitement. "Hey guys, come here, we need to order." 

The kid in the yellow coat calmly made his way towards his dad as soon as they were called, while the other two needed a little more called out to so they could finally get his attention. Red and blue coats came running towards the counter.

"I want gingerbread cookies, baba." Yellow coat told his dad in a small voice, holding onto the hem of his dad's sweater with his tiny hands.

"I want chocolate cake!" Red coat one jumped up and down.

"Apple pie!" The one with the blue coat yelled with his arms in the air.

"Alright, alright, very excited orders right here." Their dad giggled, trying to ease them.

"It'll come right up, boys." Ten smiled at the triplets, putting their orders in the register.

"Now, dad's gonna order something to drink and you three can go pick a table, okay?" He told them and the three immediately ran to their usual table, the one with a couch and two comfy chairs on the corner of the store. It was in front of a window that let them see the street, cars and people passing by. The brothers got on their knees on the couch to watch the snow starting to fall, pointing and screaming in excitement.

"Baba, look! Snow!" Blue coat kid yelled all the way from the back of the bakery, every client being able to hear him.

The dad gave his kid a nod and a smile, before turning to Ten with widened eyes.

"I'm so sorry for all the hustle, they're very energetic." He apologized. "Also, they might get the couch dirty..." He sighed, worried.

"It's totally fine, they're adorable, so it basically makes up for everything, even if they destroy the entire store." Ten joked, making the man giggle. He noticed he had the cutest dimples on his cheeks. "So, yours will be a jasmine tea, right?"

"Am I really that predictable?" He scrunched his nose and chuckled, embarrassed.

"I just noticed it's your usual order."

"Well, you weren't wrong." They both giggled as Ten placed the order in the register.

He paid for three small cups of hot chocolate as well and went back to his children, who were tickling each other on the couch. Ten watched them, not being able to help the endearing smile on his face. It was around a few weeks since they first entered the store, at the same time, on a Tuesday. Ten had been talking to Sicheng while on a little break when the family caught his attention, the extremely handsome dad and the cute triplets. His mind started drifting off to his future and the possibility of having a family as beautiful as that one to call his. It had been a while since Ten was in a relationship, so that's why his mind kept on wandering like that.

Ever since their first visit to the bakery, the family began to stop by every Tuesday and Thursday at 6, like their perfect routine. Ten had never properly spoken to them, only a few exchanges of words here and there, mostly admiring from afar, but the kids and their dad already recognized him, always greeting Ten with kind smiles on their faces. Maybe it's a depressing thing to say, but seeing them had actually become the highlight of Ten's boring weeks and he really looked forward to it.

"So, I take it you'll just admire them while I take care of their order, huh?" Sicheng went to his side to take the piece of apple pie and chocolate cake from the display on the counter, rolling his eyes at Ten.

"What? That's your job, anyway, I'm just here helping out. You should be thanking me." Ten crossed his arms across his chest, full of himself.

"Yeah, right." Sicheng huffed, already tired from his shift. After putting all of their orders on a platter, he handed it to Ten. "Take this to your sweet family, then." 

Ten showed up at the table to their dad telling the kids to sit properly so they could eat, their little eyes twinkling with excitement as Ten put their orders on the table. He watched as the little boy in the red coat took a big mouthful of his chocolate cake, getting frosting all over his cheeks.

"Delicious!" He exclaimed, clapping his tiny hands.

"You like that?" Ten grinned at him, when he finished handing their dad his tea. "I made it." He pointed at himself, feeling quite proud. People didn't usually compliment his food that much anymore, so it felt good to hear it.

"Wait, you're the baker?" The dad asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yup."

"Wow, all this time coming here fascinated by the pastry we didn't know you were the one that baked them!"

"I love it!" Blue coat exclaimed.

"Really? What's your favorite?" He bent on his knees to be about the same height as the boy sitting on his chair, knowing that eye contact was important with children. He must've seen it on a TLC show or something of the sort.

"I like the chocolate cookies with m&m's." He answered. "And we all love the cupcakes too!"

"Carrot, strawberry and lemon cupcakes, right?" Ten noticed that whenever the family came, those flavors would be the ones out of stock, since they'd take a lot of them home.

"Yes!" All three of them yelled in unison.

"They're really obsessed with it." Their dad commented with a chuckle, while helping the one in the red coat clean his mouth from all of the chocolate frosting around it. "So, you know mine and my kid's favorite orders, but we don't even know your name? I don't think that's any fair..." He questioned and Ten could feel his insides turning by the way the man was looking at him.

"I'm Ten."

"Nice to meet you, Ten." The man grinned at him. "I'm Kun." 

"I'm Yangyang!" The kid stopped his dad from cleaning his mouth to yell excitedly. He, then, introduced his brothers with the blue and yellow coats, respectively. "These are my brothers Hendery and Xiaojun!" 

"It's very nice to meet you all." 

Xiaojun got on his knees on the couch beside his dad to whisper something in Kun's ear.

"You can ask him, buddy." Kun told him in a gentle voice, encouraging the shy boy to come out of his shell.

The boy sat back down and looked down for a few seconds, shaking his little legs as he tried to avoid Ten's gaze.

"Do you… use those m&ms for the cookies...?" He asked in a small voice, pointing at the m&m's colorful jars behind the counter, his ears getting red. Ten's heart melted with how cute the boy was.

"That's a great question." He complimented him, getting an appreciated smile back from Kun. "I actually have a huge bag of m&m's in the kitchen and I use those. The ones behind the counter are for decoration." 

"A huge bag of m&m's?!" Xiaojun repeated what Ten said, his eyes widened as he finally returned Ten's gaze. Ten nodded vigorously, making all three of them gasp with the idea of so many m&m's. They made Ten feel like Willy Wonka or something.

"I can show you guys the kitchen one day." He told, getting big smiles and "Yay!"s in return.

"That'd be great, thank you." Kun kept smiling at him and Ten didn't know if he could take anymore of that warm gaze for much longer. "Now, let's all eat like polite boys and let the baker Ten go back to work, alright? Otherwise you won't have any cupcakes next time you come here."

That wasn't true, since Jaemin could very much bake in his absence, like he was probably doing at the moment, but Ten wouldn't tell him that.

"Okay." The boys agreed and then all of them waved bye at him. "Bye, baker Ten!"

Ten gushed at how adorable they were by calling him that and waved back at the family, before returning to the counter with a sigh.

"Look at you, being all cute to those triplets." Sicheng commented, laughing at him. "Little does their dad know how irresponsible you actually are. I better tell him about that day you got drunk and threw away your keys and I had to find you a locksmith in the middle of the night." 

"Shut up." Ten rolled his eyes, giving his best friend a playful shove in the arm. Truth be told, Ten had made some really bad choices in his life, most of them when he went partying with his friends, which happened every other week. However, seeing Kun and his perfect family made him suddenly eager to settle down and think about his future, although he knew his friends would probably laugh at him, doubting he would be the one considering this, of all people.

Interrupting his train of thoughts, Jaemin's face popped through the back door, an annoying expression plastered all over it.

"Ten, I swear to god, I'm gonna ruin your precious macaron recipe if you don't come and help me right now." He threatened him, to which Ten could only roll his eyes and comply.

.

Ten was calmly walking down the street with his hands inside his coat's pockets as he listened to some music on his earphones, taking in the light snow that was falling and the beautiful day on that winter morning. He absolutely loved this time of the year, every single building in the street filled with Christmas decorations, reminding him that he had to gather all of the boys that afternoon so they could decorate the bakery. Taeil, his boss and old friend, had already been bugging him about it, even if he didn't often visit the place, managing everything from his house, since he had other businesses to run. Ten loved that he had entrusted him with the management of the store, apart from being the main baker, but sometimes it got him worried that he wasn't capable of all of this, too much responsibility thrown into him. He had just graduated in gastronomy when Taeil came up with the offer of helping him in this new business. The bakery was small, but it was located in one of the main streets of a busy part of the town, so it was still a lot to manage. Thankfully, Ten hadn't done any big screw-ups in the years he's worked there.

Distracted from his own thoughts, it took a few seconds for Ten to realize he was being called.

"Hey, baker Ten!" He took his earphones and turned around to notice Kun approaching him with a huge smile. "What a funny thing to run into you in a place other than the bakery!" 

"Hey!"

"I gotta say, I almost didn't recognize you with some casual clothes for a change." Kun commented, standing in front of him on the sidewalk.

"Well, I can't stay in that apron forever, it doesn't flatter my looks." Ten joked.

"Of course." He chuckled.

"So, where are the kids?" 

"I just dropped them off at school, actually. I was looking at some books to kill time before I got to get to work." Kun explained, pointing at the bookstore behind them. "So, are you in a hurry or would you like to get a cup of coffee?" 

"Oh, I always have time for some coffee." Ten was, in fact, supposed to be at the bakery already, but a few minutes late wouldn't kill anyone. The boys could take care of themselves.

They went to a coffee shop around the corner and sat at a table near the window, the morning sun shining on Kun's handsome face, sitting across from Ten.

"I'm impressed you didn't go for your usual jasmine tea." Ten bantered, seeing Kun take a sip of his espresso.

"Oh, I love some tea, but there's no way I can get through a day of work and taking care of three kids without getting a strong shot of caffeine into my system." Kun told him, shaking his head. Ten wouldn't even believe the amount of stress he had to go through. "Our stops at the bakery have been a pretty good addition to their routine, though, it makes them excited for something in their week, you know? It calms them down. Temporarily, at least! " He said, getting a grin from Ten. He was very flattered to hear that. "I don't know if you have ever dealt with kids," Kun continued and Ten shook his head as a response. "Yeah, well, a routine is good for them, especially at this age. It gives them a sense of security. So, when we visited the bakery for the first time and I saw how ecstatic they got by the colorful decoration and delicious sweets, I knew I had to make it a weekly habit."

"Well, it's very nice to hear that." Ten leaned his chin on his palm as he smiled at Kun. "I also love everytime you and your family show up there. They're the cutest kids ever. And I think you're our most regular customers, so it keeps the cash flowing." Ten winked at him, jokingly, causing Kun to laugh.

"You're gonna have to bake healthier pastries, though, if you want us to keep visiting." Kun raised his eyebrows, taking another sip of his coffee.

"Honey, there's no such thing as a healthy pastry." Ten commented, giggling.

"I know, I know." Kun giggled along, he'd have to be extra careful with the kids' weekly meals to make up for that amount of sugar. "Although, if I stop to think of it, the sugar high at that time of the day is actually quite good, because it keeps them alert for homework, then they're extremely tired after dinner and I get to have a full night of sleep." Kun pointed out.

"You see? So, I'm actually doing you a favor." Ten joked. Bantering with Kun felt so easy and comfortable, it was like they knew each other for a long time already.

"You are, you are." Kun agreed, laughing. "You're actually very good with kids, Ten. All three of them couldn't stop talking about how 'baker Ten' is gonna show them the kitchen full of m&m's."

"Well, a promise is a promise." Ten affirmed. "I just don't know if they'll be that excited when they see the boring white kitchen full of appliances and metal counters. But, I'll make sure to scatter some colorful candy for them." 

"That'll be nice."

They talked for a while and Ten found out the kids had changed school recently, so that's why they ended up at the Prism bakery nearby, one day, coming back from class and killing some time. The kids loved the place and Kun was nearly obliged to take them back there. Ten told him he had been working there ever since his friend Taeil counted on him to start the business. He also found out Kun worked with interior design, a couple of blocks from the bakery, and they both kept talking about their lives until Kun checked his watch and realized he was running late for work, which meant Ten was extremely late for his. They said their goodbyes and Kun promised he'd be back at Prism on the next day at the same time, just like every Tuesday.

"Wow, look who decided to show up, uhm..." Sicheng glanced at the clock on the wall as soon as Ten had walked in the kitchen through the back door. "Almost an hour late."

"Shut up, I'm technically your boss." Ten rolled his eyes, taking off his coat and sweater, since the kitchen was already heated enough. "I could fire you if I want to."

"Taeil wouldn't let you and you know it." Sicheng countered, getting a batch of croissants from the oven. "You should thank me that I put the pre-made batches in the oven as soon as I realized you weren't coming, so they could be freshly baked before we opened the doors."

His relationship with Sicheng had always been about throwing funny banters around, but deep down knowing both cared very deeply for the other, since freshman year of college. Sicheng was unemployed at the time Taeil came up to Ten with the idea for the bakery, so Ten made sure to include his best friend in it, since he needed someone he trusted to be with him daily. Sicheng had been there for him through many of his ups and downs, relationships and heartbreaks and he knew he could count on him for anything.

"The store's only been open for about fifteen minutes, so I'm not even that late." Ten shrugged, putting on his apron and getting all of the appliances he needed to start baking new batches of cookies, croissants and brownies, which he knew were the first ones to run out.

"Where were you anyway? You're usually the first one to arrive." Jaemin, who had been quietly kneading dough in the corner, asked.

"What are you doing here?" Ten frowned. "Your shift's in the afternoon."

"I know, but I have no classes today, so I decided to come early." He shrugged.

"Don't change the subject, answer his question." Sicheng jokingly slapped on his waist with a kitchen towel.

"What are you doing back here, Sicheng? Are you really gonna let Renjun all by himself with those annoying college girls and their coffee orders filled with specifications right after opening?" Ten ignored him, raising his eyebrows at his friend.

"Ten..." Sicheng lowered his voice, giving him a judgy look.

"Fine, I was… Getting some coffee. That's it." He turned around trying to hide the smile on his face, but not fast enough. Sicheng was able to catch it.

"Who did you go to get coffee with?" He raised his eyebrows at Ten, curious.

"Kun." Ten wasn't able to contain his smile while he picked some ingredients from the cabinets. He had such a lovely conversation with him and the man was so pleasant to look at… "We ran into each other when I was on my way to work, so he asked if I wanted to get some coffee. I couldn't just say no." He shrugged, pretending it wasn't a big deal.

"Wait, Kun?" Jaemin frowned, trying to associate name and face. "Oh! The hot dad?!"

"The hot dad..." Ten nodded, sighing as he remembered how good Kun looked that morning.

"Yeah, Ten has a crush on him." Sicheng told Jaemin while he prepared the heated croissants for the display.

"Well, I wouldn't say it's a crush..." Ten argued, putting some measured ingredients in the big yellow mixer he loved so much. "Do I find him very good looking and cute? Absolutely. Do I think he's an amazing dad? Of course. Do I also love his kids and sometimes imagine what it'd be like if I had a family like that? Also yes, but that doesn't mean I have a crush..." 

He turned around to see both Jaemin and Sicheng giving him tired looks.

"Tell that to the drool you leave on the counter every time they come around." Sicheng pointed out.

"Okay, okay, I might have a crush." Ten admitted, feeling his cheeks burn. He had been aware of that for a while now, but had never said it out loud.

"Well, the guy asked you out this morning, maybe you might have a chance." Jaemin said, rolling the dough he had spread out on the clean counter.

"Don't give him hope." Sicheng warned Jaemin in a low voice, but Ten could still hear it. He wasn't wrong, though, Ten would often get his hopes up and daydream about a future relationship only to be let down right before things even started.

"But even if he is interested, I don't know if I'm cut out for this type of relationship, you know? I have never even interacted with kids properly and then, all of a sudden, getting to deal with three at the same time?" He admitted.

"True, but just the fact that you're already imagining having a life like his, maybe deep down you want it. And trying wouldn't hurt." Jaemin shrugged, getting another angry glance from Sicheng.

"Well, we're all just assuming here. I don't even know if the guy is single or if he's interested in me, so there's no point thinking about this." Ten said, even though he was already thinking about it.

"Ooh, who's interested in who?" Yukhei came in by the back door, shaking his hair to get all of the snow off from it.

Yukhei was their delivery boy, who also repaired anything they needed at the bakery, since his dad owned a construction store in the neighborhood and he knew a few things about it. He was always their stress relief because every time he came into a room, it was like the mood became lighter.

"Speaking of crushes..." Ten spoke loud enough for only Sicheng to hear. His best friend gave him an angry stare that told him to shut up. Ever since Yukhei started working for them, two years ago, Sicheng would sigh and blush whenever the big and tall guy would pass by him. It was definitely a crush, but Sicheng would never admit it, even if Ten kept nagging him about it.

"Ten has a crush on the triplet's dad and they both went out for coffee this morning." Jaemin updated Yukhei.

"I say go for it." Yukhei shrugged, leaning against the counter next to Sicheng, who kept glancing at the other's broad chest under his sweater. Yukhei noticed his eyes on him and looked down with a smirk. "Hi, Sicheng."

The boy's ears got immediately red and he greeted him with a nod, before walking away.

"Uh, I should really go help Renjun."

.

"Baker Ten!" A scream in unison ran through the bakery as soon as the triplets crossed the door, running towards the counter so they could greet Ten.

"Hi, boys!" He grinned widely back at them and then at the man behind the kids. "And hi to you too, Mr. Jasmine Tea."

"Ten, I love the decorations!" Kun looked around the open space room, fairy lights hanging on the counter and across the menu board on the wall behind Ten. All of the walls had some twinkling decorations, following a gold and red theme, and a tree was placed on the corner next to the entrance door, fully lit and perfectly seen by the big windows on the facade.

"Well, it's long overdue." He admitted, since they were only a couple of weeks away from Christmas. Taeil had been bugging him about the decorations for a while already, since all of the other stores on the street were already lit up, but holiday season was always a pain in the ass and Ten had been so busy with the amount of christmas-themed cookies, gingerbread houses and snowman decorated cupcakes he had to prepare that he didn't even have time to think about fairy lights.

"Baba, look! Santa!" Yangyang pointed at the miniature version of santa and his reindeers on the floor, looking as if the sleigh was coming from the kitchen, filled with presents.

"I know, baobei. It looks good, doesn't it? Oh, Xiaojun!" Kun's attention was quickly drawn from Yangyang as he caught, from the corner of his eye, his other son stretching to pick up a ball high up on the tree, that was twice his size. He was leaning on the tree branches, which could obviously have a bad outcome. Running towards the boy, Kun picked him up, ignoring his whining and grumpy face, and walked back to the counter, a tired expression on his face. "They've been all over the place today, I can't wait for this day to be over..." Kun ran his hand through his hair, visibly stressed and Ten wished he could smooth out the frown between his eyebrows with his thumb or try to lift some of the weight off from him.

"At least this one's fixated on something." Ten pointed at Hendery, who had his tiny hands glued at the glass display in front of him and eyes widened at the very colorful elf cookies Ten had come up with and baked the day before, thinking that they would like them.

"Oh, you like the elf?" He got a firm nod from Hendery. "These are my new creations, there's even a fresh batch coming out of the oven in a few minutes, you wanna see?" Hendery gasped and looked up at his dad with widened eyes. "Well, I did promise to show you the kitchen. A promise is a promise, right?"

"Yay, trip to the kitchen!" Yangyang exclaimed, running from where he was previously admiring Santa on his sleigh.

Before they made their way, though, Kun put Xiaojun on the floor and stopped all three of them to warn them about how a kitchen is a dangerous place and that they should listen to Ten and only touch whatever Ten let them touch.

"No running allowed. Got it?" He asked, bent on his knees so he could be at their height.

"Got it!" All three answered in unison, standing in a row behind Ten so they could follow him.

"Wow, that was impressive." Ten complimented him. His heart actually did a small somersault in his chest whenever he saw how good of a dad Kun was.

"Well, sometimes they listen. But other times, it's just pure chaos."

They quietly followed behind Ten into the kitchen and looked around the place with wide eyes as soon as they were inside.

"Guys, this is Jaemin, my assistant. He's a cupcake specialist."

Jaemin waved and gave them a big grin.

"I'm actually making some right now." He showed them the chocolate dough he was preparing in a bowl.

"Cool!" Yangyang exclaimed.

"I have a question." Hendery raised his hand, politely.

"Sure."

"How do you draw on the cookies and cupcakes?"

"That's a very good question, Hendery!" Ten complimented him and the boy beamed at him, proud of himself. "We actually make the frosting and icing with a mix of ingredients like sugar and butter and add food coloring on it with the color we want." He picked up a tiny blue bottle and showed them. "Just a drop of this little thing does the magic."

All three of them wowed at the knowledge.

"I actually have some ready right here. Wanna see me make a christmas tree cupcake?" Ten asked them, all of them shouting "Yes!" in return. Kun put them up on the stools they had around the big kitchen island so they could watch it better.

Ten picked up a fresh out of the batch cupcake that was cooled off enough so he could start working on it and took the little bag with green frosting, doing circular movements with his wrist so it could make a pointy shape upwards. Then, he added a few tiny sprinkles of silver balls, some candy canes and a golden star made of icing on the top of the green frosting.

He looked up to see the triplets with their mouths hanging open, admiring his work.

"See how fun it is?" Kun smiled at them.

"It's like playdough!" Xiaojun exclaimed.

"Well, you can't eat playdough..." Jaemin warned him.

"Baba, I want to be a baker like Ten!" Yangyang exclaimed with his arms up in the air as he came to that realization.

"I'm sure you'll make an amazing baker, Yang." Kun kissed the top of his head and Ten could swear his heart happily twisted in his chest with how beautiful they looked.

"Okay, so did you see that gingerbread house we have on the counter back there?" Ten asked them, pointing to the front of the store. They all nodded vehemently and it amused Ten that it looked like he was holding a class for toddlers. "Well, what do you think about trying to make one?" He took the separated gingerbread walls and ceiling from inside a cupboard and put them in front of the kids on the counter, seeing their eyes widen with excitement.

"Ten, there's no need." Kun tried to convince him. "This is your job, we wouldn't want to disturb..."

"It's really not a big deal, it takes no time at all. I'll guide them." Ten assured him.

"But, it's your ingredients, which cost money to the bakery and..." He looked really worried to be causing some trouble to Ten.

"Kun, come on, it's just six pieces of gingerbread, it's nothing." Ten told him, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "They'll have fun, you'll see."

Kun sighed and nodded, agreeing to it. Ten leaned on the kitchen island so he could guide the boys and show them how to glue the walls and ceilings together with white icing. He let the triplets do almost all of it, only doing it for them when they asked him to, and it took the kids some time to get it standing, but it eventually did. The three of them laughed and squealed as they pressed on the bag of icing with their tiny hands to draw windows, walls and ceiling decorations amidst screams of "My turn! My turn!" when they passed around the bag. Ten would sometimes catch Kun standing by the side, watching them and smiling with a soft look in his eyes the entire time. When they were done decorating it with m&m's (Ten's bag was, indeed, huge) Kun proudly asked them to pose for a photo with Ten and the house, smiling as he admired how happy his kids looked.

"Thank you for this, Ten, really. You didn't have to." Kun spoke to Ten while the kids ate freshly baked elf cookies that Ten had offered and Kun had insisted he would pay later.

"Of course I did, look at those smiles." Ten motioned at them, happily munching on the cookies. God, he was getting too attached already. He had to keep reminding himself he barely knew that family.

They left the kitchen right after, to give the kids some hot chocolate, but the peace and quiet didn't last long, since Kun turned away to talk to Ten for a few seconds and Hendery got under the table and ended up hitting his head, which led to a loud cry coming from the boy. He sobbed in his dad's arms, a red bump on his forehead while Kun deeply apologized to Ten for disturbing the other customers and rejected his help, saying it'd be better if they just went home. He was clearly very stressed that day and Ten could only imagine how hard it would be like some days, even so if Kun was a single parent, which was Ten's guess.

They barely had any time to say some proper goodbyes before Kun was out of there, promising he'd be back soon. He didn't take too long to keep his promise, though, surprising Ten on the next day at around 1 pm and without any kids with him, which was unusual.

"Hi there, Eleven." He greeted jokingly when Ten appeared from the kitchen door after Sicheng called him. Ten couldn't believe he was actually giggling at his stupid joke.

"What an unusual hour for you, Jasmine Tea." Ten commented, wiping his hands full of flour on his apron. He was in the middle of baking cinnamon rolls, but had to stop to meet Kun.

"Well, I'm on my lunch break and I work nearby, so I decided to stop by..." Kun gave him a half smile, standing kind of awkwardly with his hands on his pockets, his body swaying back and forth. "Last night I left in the midst of such chaos that I didn't even properly say goodbye to you." He told Ten. "Your customers must be so annoyed by these bunch of kids already."

"Who cares about them? You're the ones who pay our bills anyway." Ten joked, shrugging. "And how's Hendery? Everything okay?"

"As soon as we got home and put some ice on his head, he stopped crying. It was just a scare. He was back to playing with his brothers in no time." Kun calmly answered, like he was already used to that kind of thing. He must've gone through a bunch of those scares with the boys already.

"Well, I'm glad he's okay."

"I brought you these, by the way." Kun picked a paper from his back pocket and unfolded it to hand it to Ten. "All three of them worked on it before their bedtime. They said it was the best part of their day." 

Looking at the paper from a distance you could only see colored scribbles, but once Ten looked at it closely he could identify the structure of the gingerbread house, three people made of sticks representing the kids, and a much taller one with a white hat on his head, representing 'baker Ten'. On the top of the paper, it was written on a much delicate and pretty handwriting the words "Our first time making a gingerbread house. From: Xiaojun, Hendery and Yangyang. To: Baker Ten."

Ten put a hand over his heart, a big grin on his face, as he felt like he was going to explode from how cute this was. 

"I was the one who wrote it." Kun felt the need to explain to him. "If you… couldn't tell that already."

"Well, they're very bright kids, I wouldn't doubt they could do this by themselves." Ten told him, playfully. "I love this, Kun. Thank you for giving it to me. I'll make sure to thank them for the drawing tomorrow."

"Actually… Apart from bringing the boys in the evening, I was wondering if you would like to get lunch with me tomorrow?" He asked and Ten could tell he was kind of nervous about it. "Since, you know, I work only a couple of blocks away, we could meet for lunch at this restaurant I usually go to..."

"I would love to." Ten promptly answered, giving him a reassuring smile. Inside, though, he felt his heart thump anxiously against his chest.

"Great." Kun smiled back at him. "I'll give you my number, then, and text you the exact place later."

.

"Okay, that's definitely a date." Renjun told Ten as soon as he arrived wearing his favorite sweater and explained to the boys why he was so dressed up.

"I mean, he didn't say the word 'date' or explicitly asked me to 'go out' with him or anything. He just asked if we could get lunch together. That could be a casual thing." Ten shrugged, trying to pretend like he believed his own words. Deep down, however, he was kind of nervous of what it all meant, hoping Kun had other intentions than simply having lunch with him.

"There's nothing bad with being hopeful." Yukhei said, while stacking the two packed cakes he had to deliver. He was lucky Sicheng wasn't there, otherwise he'd beat Yukhei's ass for it.

Ten kept glancing at the clock the entire morning while he baked, anxiously waiting for lunch time. He was, however, in the middle of preparing dough when Sicheng told him Kun had arrived and Jaemin wasn't there yet to replace him.

"Go on, lover boy, I'll put them in the oven and keep an eye on them for you." Renjun hurried Ten, helping him finish placing the balls of cookie dough onto a baking pan.

"Alright." Ten quickly took off his apron and washed his hands. "Remember, 40 minutes!"

"As if I don't know that already." Renjun grumbled.

At that time of the day, there were only a couple of customers buying a few desserts to go, so Ten easily spotted Kun calmly sitting by the window, focused on something in his hands. It took Ten a few steps closer to realize he was making origami on a small orange piece of paper.

"Hey, sorry it took me so long."

"Hang on." Kun bit on the bottom of his lip as he focused on folding the paper and finishing it. "Done." He presented it on his palm. It was the cute origami of a cat.

"Oh, that's so cute! You did it perfectly." Ten inspected it closely.

"It's yours, then." Kun took Ten's hand and placed the cat on it.

"O-oh… Okay." Ten smiled and made his way to put it on top of the register so he could pick it up later, since putting it in his pocket would destroy the thing.

"Are you ready to go, Eleven?" Kun followed him and grinned at his stupid nickname, Ten giving him an eye roll in return.

"We better hurry up, so it won't take too much of your lunch time." 

"Don't worry, I talked to my supervisor about getting a little late and it's totally fine." Kun eased him, standing up and following Ten to the door.

The restaurant was a very nice one that served all types of food and not that far from the bakery, but Ten had no idea why he hadn't known about it before, since he usually had lunch around the area whenever he didn't pack anything from home.

"It's fairly new. It's been open for about six months, I believe." Kun told him, while looking through the window of the restaurant when they were already seated. "I work over there, see? On the fifth floor." He pointed to a tall building just across the street and Ten wowed at it.

"So, tell me about you and the kids." Ten started the topic, after browsing the menu and ordering his food. "If it's not too much to ask, of course. I'm just curious." 

"What do you want to know?" Kun rested his back on the chair, looking straight at Ten. He could feel his ears getting hot by the attention.

"Uh… Well, are you and their mom still together? I was wondering, because I've never seen her at the bakery."

"Oh, no." Kun chuckled, like what Ten said was something absurd. "I'm gay, actually. Have been for a very long time."

"Oh!" Ten raised his eyebrows. So, he was right and maybe this was a date, after all, since he hadn't talked about having a partner.

"So, how did it…?" 

"Well, I was lonely. That's basically it." Kun laughed. "No, actually, I had been through a tough break up a few years back, one that left me feeling terrible because I really thought I was going to spend my entire life with him and have a family of my own, you know? We were together for a long time and I was really looking forward to our future together." Kun shared his story with Ten. "But, then, after the break up and me finally getting over him, I realized that what I was actually sad about was losing that prospect of having a family. What I really wanted was a child." He explained. "I have always liked kids, have always wanted one of my own. So, coming to that realization was what made me decide to raise a kid all by myself, even though I wasn't even in my thirties yet." 

"Wow." Ten could only look at him with his chin leaned on his palm while he listened to Kun, very interested in his story.

"Yeah, a lot of people, and especially my parents, thought I was going crazy and that I was too young to do this, that I should wait for a new partner and do things in the 'right order'." He did the inverted commas with his fingers and rolled his eyes at that ridiculous statement. "But, to me, it felt right, you know? I didn't want to wait so I could find someone, fall in love all over again, get married and then have a kid. I didn't see the need to follow this stupid order just because everyone told me it was the right thing to do." He shrugged, looking completely happy with his decision and how his life turned out. "I had a stable job, an apartment and enough money, so it felt like the right time. So, my friends supported me on this and, then, this other friend of mine offered to surrogate a baby for me." He continued, watching Ten raise his eyebrows at the story. "I was first thinking of adopting a child, but she said she had no problem with it, that she only wanted to see me happy. So, we came to an agreement, even signed a type of contract specifying that she'd only be involved in my kid's life if I wanted to, since she kept telling me she never wanted kids, so she didn't have an interest in sharing custody or anything like that. Then, of course, I didn't have sex with her. She's a lesbian and I'm gay, so..." He chuckled. "We did insemination."

"Right. Very fitting." Ten commented, laughing along.

"And, then, on the second ultrasound, we found out we were having triplets." Even though Ten knew the outcome already, he couldn't help widening his eyes at the unravel of this whole story. "I mean, those are the consequences of doing insemination. Multiple eggs for higher chances of impregnating. But, it still surprised us."

"Wow, so how did you feel, back then?" Ten asked. He could imagine the shock Kun must've felt.

"At first, I was desperate, of course. I had planned and prepared for one baby and I definitely didn't have enough money for triplets. Also, there was the biggest issue, which was how the hell was I supposed to take care of three kids by myself? In my head, it was impossible. So, I began to panic."

"I can only imagine." Ten commented. The waiter, then, arrived with their food, but it didn't stop them from continuing their conversation in between bites.

"Of course I wanted all three of them. It was some kind of a miracle that I wanted one kid and then got handed three. But, I had no idea how I was gonna do that." Kun explained. "So, then, seeing my desperation, my friends assured me they would help me with anything I needed. That and the support of my family made me feel certain that I could do it." He continued, after taking a quick bite from his meal. "Of course, I talked to Seulgi, my friend who was going to be the one pregnant with triplets and having to deal with all of the pain and stuff. She told me it was fine and I promised her I would be with her throughout the entire process."

"And how was the pregnancy?"

"Overall, it was good. Of course, triplets demanded a lot of bed rest from Seulgi and I kept apologizing to her and thanking her again and again for doing this for me, but she said that I gave her happiness by introducing her to her girlfriend, Irene, and that it was time for her to give it back. She's the best." Kun's lips quirked upwards, thinking of his friend. "They were born prematurely, which is normal for triplets, but it still worried us because they had to stay in the hospital for a few weeks. Eventually, they were fine. And I think it hit me when I took them home for the first time." He shook his head with a huge smile on his face, reminiscing. Ten couldn't help smiling back, it was beautiful to see how much those kids meant to Kun. "They were all bundled together inside one crib, because people say it resembles their proximity inside the womb, so it calms them down. And I remember just sitting there on my bed and staring at them the whole night. I couldn't even sleep for more than ten minutes because I would wake up startled, afraid something might happen to them." He giggled at himself, finding it silly now. "So, in the first few months my mom stayed with me and helped me figure things out, but then it was just me and the three of them. It's always a complete mess and very stressful, but they're my whole world and I wouldn't change a thing."

Kun breathed out, like he was finally finished with his story and looked back at Ten, who was just smiling at him.

"I'm sorry, I talked too much, didn't I?" He put his hands over his face, embarrassed and Ten thought it was the cutest thing ever.

"It's totally fine and I wanted to know about it. It's a great story." Ten assured him. "Do you have pictures of them as babies? I'd love to see it."

"Of course!" Kun exclaimed, quickly taking his phone from his pocket, excited to show them to Ten. His camera roll was entirely pictures of his children and he had to scroll way back to find the baby ones.

"Oh my god!" Ten squealed when Kun showed him a bunch of photo shoots he had done with the kids dressed up in cute little outfits, matching and smiling big to the camera. "I love these so much." 

"Yeah, I'm a sucker for these three." Kun beamed while going through the pictures. There were tons of random ones, like them at the park or at daycare, Xiaojun cuddling with Hendery as they slept together on the couch, Yangyang on Kun's lap pointing at pictures on the book they were reading and a bunch of them doing silly faces to the camera. Ten's heart felt like it was going to explode any time.

"And what about their mom?" Ten asked, curious, once Kun put his phone back in his pocket.

"Well, she left to live in Australia with her girlfriend when the kids were around one. She visits them whenever she comes back, though, and gives them tons of presents." Kun explained to him. "The triplets understand that she's their mom, the woman that put them in the world, and they really like whenever she comes over, but it's not that motherly feeling, you know? And I don't think they miss it, they've never expressed it, at least. They seem to enjoy the way things are."

"It must be because you're such a great father to them. You're all they need." Ten pointed out, causing Kun to blush a little.

"Yeah, maybe."

"Does it ever get lonely, though?" Ten asked him, hesitantly. He took a sip from his glass of wine while Kun pondered for a bit.

"Sometimes." He confessed. "I mean, I have my friends who come by basically everyday and are always there to watch the kids when I need them. But, it's not the same than having a partner, you know?" He looked down at his plate. "Having someone to share the good and the bad, like when the kids first started walking or when Xiaojun got really sick and I had to run with him and the other two to the hospital in the middle of the night. Someone to worry about every single detail in their life with me, you know? The little things."

"I'm sorry, Kun." Ten reached out over the table and squeezed his hand in support, which made Kun glance at it and squeeze it back.

"But, it's okay. I'm handling things." Kun showed him a half smile to prove to Ten that he was fine. "And they're getting older, so it's way easier. The baby stage was the worst."

"God, I'm sure it was hard." Ten looked back at their hands and realized they were still holding each other, so he took his hand back, feeling a bit awkward, to take another sip of his wine.

They talked for a while more until they realized it was already time to go. When the check arrived, however, both of them reached for it at the same time, Kun's hand over Ten's and Kun's lips quirked upwards into a smirk when he saw how speechless Ten got.

"Please, let me." Kun insisted. "At least, then, I'll have an excuse for us to have lunch another day. You pay for the next one."

"Alright, then. It's a deal." Ten giggled, agreeing to it.

They ended up going for lunch again two days later and Ten wasn't late, but Kun already had another cat origami to give him. This time, a blue one. 

"Why a cat? Is that the only thing you can make?" He teased and Kun widened his eyes, pretending to be offended.

"Excuse me? I'm a master at origami, I just make these because they remind me of you." 

"Oh." Ten felt himself blush. He definitely didn't expect that answer. "Okay, then, I guess I'll start my collection." He placed it alongside the other one next to the register. It looked cute there.

Over lunch, they talked about college, their professions and hobbies. Kun told Ten that he had a keyboard at home and would often play for the kids as a lullaby or just to destress, since he had always been very into music. Ten told him he sometimes danced at a studio near his place to release some stress as well.

Since they still had some time to kill after having lunch, Ten asked Kun if he could come back with him to the bakery so he could show him something.

"I made these this morning." Ten told Kun as he handed him a plate with a tiny pink cookie shaped like a box of a present, with even a small white bow at the top. "Open it." As he did so, Kun's eyes widened with the surprising m&m's inside the box, like it was indeed a present. "I thought of doing this for the Christmas season. The kids inspired me with their m&m's obsession, of course." He giggled.

"My god, Ten, this is so creative." He took a bite of the cookie as well and closed his eyes in a delighted expression. "And so delicious too, wow! You nail it everytime, Eleven." Ten scoffed at the nickname.

"Well, thank you, Jasmine Tea."

"But seriously, is this your way of winning people over? By their stomach?"

"Hell yeah, baby." It took Ten a few seconds to realize he had just called Kun 'baby', but the other chose not to tease him about it, giving him a smirk instead.

"Well, then, it's definitely working."

.

"You're kidding, right?" Jaemin raised his eyebrows at Ten, letting go of the cake decorations he was making to look at Ten straight in the eye. "You went out with him twice, he told you about his entire life, made you cat origami because 'it reminded him of you' and you're still not sure if you went on an actual date?!" 

"My god, just ask him. It's not that hard." Sicheng rolled his eyes, tired of Ten's drama already.

"But how do you ask something like this out of the blue?" Ten bit on his bottom lip, trying to figure out what he should do.

"Ten, you once just straight up kissed a boy you had a crush on without even waiting for him to greet you properly, remember?" Sicheng pointed out, talking about a college party they went together back in the day. Ten only knew the boy from seeing him around campus and simply jumped on him when he saw him at that party. Fortunately, the boy was totally into it and it turned out great for Ten. They hooked up for a few weeks before both got a bit bored of each other. "You're used to being way more direct than this, I don't know what you're so scared about."

Of being rejected. The old courageous college boy Ten had gone through some tough rejections that made him lose his bravery in its entirety. And Kun and his family… They were too precious for Ten to lose like that. However, he wouldn't say that to Sicheng.

"I don't know." He shrugged. Maybe he should just take their advice and toughen up, ask Kun out on a proper date and show him that he wanted to be a bit more than friends. If he rejected Ten, then so be it. He'd probably get through it eventually. Probably. "Alright, I'll do it. I'll talk to him tonight."

"That's what I'm talking about!" Jaemin cheered.

"Okay, my shift's over, thank god. Can't wait to get the hell out of here." Renjun grunted, passing by the kitchen doors and taking off his apron. "Sicheng, there's two annoying old ladies back there and I wouldn't leave them waiting for too long."

Sicheng sighed and made his way out of the kitchen.

"You know, you could at least pretend to like it here, at least in front of your boss." Ten told Renjun, crossing his arms across his chest to seem like he was very serious.

"Why? You know I'm only here to afford my bills, anyway." He shrugged, honest.

"Renjun's biggest dream is get the university radio to pay for the internship instead of only having volunteering positions, 'cause then he'd be out of here in a second." Jaemin told Ten, holding in his laughter.

"Absolutely." Renjun admitted. "In fact, I did an extra shift today so I can go back home a day earlier for the holidays, okay? See you next week, suckers. Merry Christmas."

"That boy, seriously..." Ten muttered, whilst shaking his head, as soon as Renjun left through the back door. He loved the kid, though. A brat, but responsible and kind at heart.

"Ten?" Sicheng peeked through the kitchen door, getting Ten out of his thoughts. "Daddy's here."

"Ew!" Ten threw a washing cloth on his way, almost hitting his face. "Don't say that!"

Jaemin laughed out loud, holding himself to the counter as he bent his torso and put his hand on his belly with how much he was laughing.

"Go get your daddy!" He said, in between laughs, tears streaming down his face.

"Don't give him the credit." Ten rolled his eyes, seeing Sicheng look too pleased with himself.

"Too bad Yukhei's not here to hear your precious joke." Ten teased as he passed by Sicheng, who put a frown on his face.

"Ten gege!" He heard a shout in unison as soon as he crossed the door, the three little ones almost making him lose balance by quickly embracing his legs.

"Hey guys, calm down. You're gonna knock out Ten." Kun rushed to help him, making the kids back away a bit. He looked at Ten with a warm smile on his face. It amazed Ten how Kun looked like he was glowing all the time. "Hi."

"Hi." Ten smiled back, feeling a bit in a daze. Yeah, he was definitely asking him out tonight. Shaking his head, he focused on the three kids begging for his attention. "Hi, boys! How are you? How was school today?" 

"Cool! We did a puppet show!" Yangyang exclaimed.

"And had our own grocery store!" Xiaojun added.

"And Yangyang was grounded!" Hendery let out, making Ten widen his eyes. That was unexpected.

"What?! What happened?" Kun asked Yangyang, who pushed Hendery annoyingly, making the other stumble. "Hey! Hey! No pushing."

"He fought with Donghyuck."

"Hendery, baby, this is Yangyang's problem, so let him answer, okay?" Kun told Hendery, who nodded and obeyed.

"Hyuck was grounded too." Yangyang defended himself, a big pout on his lips.

"But, what happened?" Kun got on his knees to be by his son's height.

"He took my playdough without asking, so I took his. But he got mad. And I got mad too." He mumbled, his bottom lip quivering as he tried his hardest not to cry.

"Yang, what have I told you about sharing? You have two brothers, you should know this by now." Kun spoke to him firm, but calmly.

"But he didn't ask! Jun and Dery always ask first!" He argued.

"Then, you should've been the bigger person and asked if you could take a bit of his playdough too. That would show him to ask you next time." A single tear fell off from Yangyang's eye as he nodded to his father. "There's no need to cry, okay? Just remember what I told you next time."

Picking him up in his arms to soothe the boy, Kun sighed, looking at Ten.

"I'm sorry. Family drama." 

"It's alright, you never know when it's gonna hit you." Ten giggled, looking down as he felt his hand being pulled by Xiaojun.

"Sit with us, gege." He asked.

"Oh no, I can't." 

"Really?" Kun asked, giving him puppy eyes and Ten couldn't possibly resist that. "Just a few minutes." 

"Yes, pleeease." Hendery begged, jumping up and down.

"Alright, alright. I can take a break for a couple minutes." 

They sat on the usual couch where the family was used to sit and Hendery immediately went to sit on Ten's lap, Yangyang still upset about what he did, glued to his father's neck, and Xiaojun played with the salt and sugar on the table. Ten had no idea how he was going to ask Kun out on a date with his children listening, but at some point he would have to.

Sicheng showed up with the family's orders and narrowed his eyes at Ten.

"I'm not going to serve you." 

"I didn't ask you to." Ten sighed. "I'm just sitting here, relax." 

"Ten-ge, we... talked to our friends in class about the gingerbread house!" Hendery played with the strap of Ten's apron while struggling to speak his long sentence, but Ten kept saying "Hm" to encourage him to go on. "And they were shocked because they never made one before."

"Really?" 

Hendery nodded vehemently, quite proud of themselves for being the first ones to do it.

"So, they got super excited and told their parents to buy one for them!" He beamed at Ten.

"Might've caused a bit of trouble for those parents there, since gingerbread houses are very hard to find now, so close to Christmas." Kun chuckled, helping Yangyang, who was still sitting on his lap, to drink his hot chocolate.

"Well, that's no problem for these boys right here, because they've got their own baker and I can make them gingerbread houses whenever they want, right?" Ten smiled at them, who cheered, excitedly, Yangyang almost spilling his hot chocolate all over his dad.

"Oh, here they are!" Someone approached them with a huge smile and open arms and the kids quickly recognized him. Hendery jumped from Ten's lap and all three of them ran towards the man who was now on his knees to catch the triplets.

"Taeyong gege!" They hugged him tight, screaming in joy as he tickled their bellies.

"God, I missed my boys so much!" The guy had big eyes, a slim body and a very flattering face. He kissed the kids all over their faces and Ten glanced at Kun to see if he actually knew that man or if that was some random stranger about to kidnap the kids, but Kun had a big grin on his face and a soft look in his eyes while watching them. It resembled Ten the way he looked at him when he was decorating the gingerbread house with the kids.

"So, how was the trip?" Kun pulled the guy into a tight hug when he approached, all of the kids happily following him.

"Tiring." He sighed, throwing himself on the chair near Kun.

"I can imagine." Kun squeezed the guy's knee in support. "Oh." He looked as if he just remembered Ten was still there. "This is Taeyong, by the way. Taeyong, this is Ten."

"Very nice to meet you." Taeyong shook Ten's hand, who was still a bit thrown back. "You're the baker, right? I've heard about you."

"Uh, yeah. I'm the baker." Ten repeated the words, letting it sink in, like all of a sudden that was his only description. He knew he was being too dramatic, but he couldn't help it.

"So, Taeyong here was just in a dance competition in France, right Tae?" Kun told Ten, looking very proud.

"Right." Taeyong blushed a bit. "It was no big deal, really." He tried to seem humble, but Ten wasn't buying it. "I'm a part of a dance group and we were invited to participate in this international competition. We didn't rank very high, but it was still quite an experience." He sighed, contemplating. "Actually, our dance academy just opened a new studio a few blocks from here, which is such a relief since it's right next to our place, right Kun?" 

Oh. Our place.

Suddenly all of the pieces were being put together in Ten's brain.

"Right. So now you don't need to drive all the way back from the studio, tired as hell." Kun commented and Ten had to keep on with the fake smile and understanding nod. "So, now that you're back, Tae, I can finally relax and take a day off. God, I was struggling without you."

Ten felt so out of place in that conversation that he just needed to get out as quick as possible.

"Uh, I'm gonna go back to the kitchen, guys. They might be needing me back there."

"Oh, wait, Ten." Kun placed his hand on Ten's arm to stop him. "We're actually about to go as well, lots of catching up to do." He smiled at Taeyong and Ten actually felt kind of sick to his stomach. "But, before we go, I wanted to ask you something. And that's why I told Taeyong to meet us here, actually."

"Shoot." Ten sat back down.

"Well, we were wondering if you did wedding cakes…?"

Ten's heart sank in his chest and he opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"It's actually a bit late, I believe, since the wedding is in mid-January, three weeks from now. And I don't know if you needed an earlier notice or even if you do wedding cakes at all, but..."

"I'll do it." Ten didn't know what came over him because he could've simply said ‘no’ and made up an excuse that he didn't do wedding cakes, every cell in his body was telling him to do so. But those weren't the words that came out of his mouth.

"Really?" Taeyong and Kun said in unison, smiling big at Ten.

"God, that is such a relief, I've been calling everywhere in the search for someone to make this cake, but they were all so busy with the holiday preparations..." Taeyong explained, breathing out in relief. "Then, Kun told me he'd met this amazing baker and we thought we should ask you. Thank god you accepted it." He clapped his hands, excited.

"Yeah, I'll do it." Ten reassured them, a weird taste in his mouth. "Just… Come by whenever you want to explain to me all of the details or contact me in the bakery's dms." He told the two of them, standing up so he could get out of there already.

"Oh hey, Ten." Kun called for him before he turned his back. "Well, I'm already on my holiday break as of today, so I'll be taking the kids to my parent's place for Christmas and New Years tomorrow." He informed Ten. "So, I guess we'll see each other next year, then." 

Ten nodded, getting on his knees to hug the kids goodbye. Standing up, he gave Kun a half smile, before walking away.

"Merry Christmas, Kun." 

"Merry Christmas, Ten."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guys i know this was a long ass chapter ashusdgfh but i promise the other ones will be a bit shorter and also i believe this fic will have around 5 chapters! thank you for reading :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all so much for the comments in the first chapter!! let me know what you think of this one too, really hope you guys like it :)

"Wait, wait, so back me up a bit. He's getting married?!" Jaemin asked while he was measuring some ingredients. He had just gotten back from his holiday break, right after new years, and wanted updates on Ten and Kun's drama.

"Yup. And I'm making the cake." Ten affirmed, feeling sorry for himself. "Like the idiot that I am."

"Oh, Ten..." Jaemin sighed, pitying him. "And you're still into him?"

"One thing I'm terrible at, Jaemin, is getting over someone." Ten stated. It had always been like this, he kept letting himself down and it was like he didn't learn. "If Sicheng was here, he would confirm it. He's been my shoulder to cry on way too many times."

"Ten, he's here asking for you." Sicheng suddenly peaked through the kitchen door.

"Oh." Ten felt himself get nervous, all of a sudden. He took off his apron and walked out of the kitchen to get hit by a wave of sadness as soon as he spotted Kun with Hendery in his arms, fixing his son's hair.

Kun was so beautiful, he always made the room shine brighter when he was around, that warm smile of his making Ten feel like everything would be okay. He gave Ten a sense of security and, seeing the love he had for his kids and how he was raising them to be the most amazing boys, it all made Ten feel sure that he was the perfect man. And indeed he was. Too perfect to be real, since neither he nor his kids would ever be a part of Ten's life. They were Taeyong's fiance and kids, after all.

"Ten-ge!" He was caught by surprise by Yangyang hugging his leg, quickly followed by Xiaojun and Hendery, who kicked his legs until his dad put him on the floor and he could run towards Ten as well.

"Hi, boys." Ten got on his knees to hug them tight. "How was Christmas?"

"Awesome!" Yangyang exclaimed. "We played with grandma's dog!" 

"Yes! And I got a firetruck from Santa!" Hendery clapped his little hands, excited.

"Really? That's so cool!" Ten raised his voice to match Hendery's excitement. "What did you get, Xiaojun?"

"I got a mini guitar." He smiled brightly. "It's white and me and my brothers put stickers on it."

"That's awesome, I'd like to hear you play it sometime." Ten tickled Xiaojun on his tummy, causing him to shriek and giggle, bending his torso.

"Hey there, Eleven." Ten looked up to find Kun showing him a soft grin. It did something to his heart, but it left him sad at the same time. 

"Hi, Kun." Kun seemed a bit thrown back by not being called 'Jasmine Tea', but only raised his eyebrows at it.

"Ten-ge, it was baba's birthday on new years!" Yangyang pulled on Ten's sleeve to get his attention.

"Oh, really?" Ten stood up, surprised. He had no idea Kun's birthday was near, he hadn't mentioned it to him.

"Yeah, unfortunately to my mom, I was born in the middle of a new years eve party." He laughed, with his hands in his pockets.

"Wow, uhm… Happy birthday, then, Kun." Ten told him, feeling a little bit awkward. He was about to ask the guy out on a proper date a week before, but now he felt like they were back to being complete strangers. "Sorry, I don't have any gifts, I..."

"That's totally fine, I don't need any gifts." Kun rushed to stop him. "Although, maybe we could grab lunch again sometime this week…? That could work as a birthday present."

Ten, who was avoiding eye contact this whole time, finally looked up to meet Kun's eyes and frowned a bit. It pained him to give an excuse to something he actually really wanted to do.

"I, uhm..." He picked on his nails, nervously. "I actually can't. I've been super busy with the holidays and now I have the wedding cake on top of it all, so..." He sighed, upset. "I'm sorry." 

"Oh, that's totally fine, I understand." Kun reassured him, while picking up Xiaojun who wanted his attention. "So, you talked to Taeyong? About the cake details? Is everything set?" 

"Yeah, he told me everything he wanted and I'm already working on the design." Ten said in a straightforward way, going behind the counter to get his order and also to keep avoiding Kun's gaze on him.

"That's great. Taeyong has been dreaming about this cake for a long time now and he deserves the best cake ever." Kun commented, with a smile.

"Okay, so what are you ordering?" Ten thought it was best to focus on the register then to feel jealous of a guy he barely even knew, who was getting married to the man of Ten's dreams and raising his beautiful children with him.

"Actually, Sicheng already got our orders."

"Oh." Ten looked up, surprised. Thankfully, that could be his way out of there. "I'll be on my way, then." 

"Wait, really?" Kun looked at him, seeming upset. "Can't you sit with us a bit?" 

"I can't, Kun, I'm sorry. Gotta get back to baking." Ten told him, already bending down to hug the kids goodbye. After talking to all three of them, he gave Kun a quick wave and rushed back to the kitchen, without looking back. The quicker he was away from Kun, the better.

.

Kun went to the bakery a few days later taking the spare time of his lunch break to stop by and catch up with Ten. He had actually eaten pretty fast that day so he'd have enough time for it.

"Hey Sicheng, how are you?" Kun greeted the guy with a smile, getting a nod in return. Sicheng was always pretty quiet, but he liked him. "Is Ten on his lunch break? Can you tell him that I'm here? I wanted to catch up with him."

"Uh… He can't, actually." Sicheng replied, a bit uneasy by the situation.

"Really? Why? Is he busy?"

"He's… Not here." Sicheng didn't sound so sure of his answers, neither did the scrunched expression on his face, but what gave it away the most was the sound of laughter that Kun heard from the kitchen, which definitely belonged to Ten.

"So, that's not him, then? Laughing?" He pointed to the kitchen door.

"Uhm, no, that's… Jaemin. They have pretty similar laughs." Sicheng gave him this lame ass excuse that not even he expected Kun to believe.

"Alright..." Kun was smart enough to know when to take a hint. Ten definitely didn't want to see him and, although that left him quite confused, even more after their last interaction, which was pretty awkward, there was nothing he could do about it. "Could you… Give him this for me, then? Tell him I said hi." He handed Sicheng the yellow cat origami he was holding.

"Okay. I'll do that."

"Thanks, Sicheng."

Sicheng waited a few seconds after Kun left for him to go in the kitchen with the origami in his hand.

"Kun dropped this for you. He says hi." Sicheng handed it to Ten, who immediately let go of his lunchbox on top of the counter and took it, looking a bit stunned. "I told him you weren't here, like you told me to, but then he heard your laughter, so I don't think he believed me that much..."

"Dammit..." Ten ran his hand over his face, stressed out.

"He looked pretty upset."

"God, what's his deal?" Ten groaned, frustrated. "He's getting married and I'm baking his wedding cake! Why does he keep seeking me?!"

"Do you think… He's a cheater?" Yukhei wondered, with his cheeks full of the sandwich he was eating, his eyes widened. He looked like a stunned puppy.

"This is getting on my nerves." Ten complained, sighing while looking at the origami. He wanted to run away from Kun and block him from his life, but he just couldn't. And every time he showed up, Ten's crush became five times stronger, as much as he tried his hardest not to.

On the third time Kun stopped by after the holidays, it was on his usual visiting hour with the kids and, unfortunately, Ten wasn't able to hide in the kitchen in time, since he was at the counter helping Sicheng with a big cake order from a client. He was giving her the change when he heard the excited screams from the kids. Ten made sure to greet them, but stopped when he met eyes with Kun, who gave him a half-smile.

"Hey, Ten." Ten noticed how he didn't call him 'Eleven' this time.

"Hey." 

"How is everything?"

"Good. I already have everything I need for the cake." Ten told him, thinking that was what he actually wanted to hear, instead of Ten's boring life.

"Right." Kun didn't seem too pleased with his answer, but decided to let it go. "Oh, actually, I talked to Taeyong and you're staying for the party, right?"

"I'm… What?"

"Well, you can't possibly just go deliver the cake and then leave, you gotta stay for the party." Kun explained and Ten was about to argue, when he stopped him. "We're not taking 'no' for an answer, you're coming. Wear your best suit and come party with us. Alright?"

"Yes, Ten-ge! Come to the party!" Hendery joined his dad.

"Okay, I guess… I guess I'll go, then." Ten shook his head and let out an awkward chuckle, defeated.

"That's great." Kun smiled back at him, satisfied, and then turned to his kids. "Boys, why don't you go to our regular table? Baba wants to talk to Ten for a bit, okay?" The kids nodded and happily ran to their usual couch.

"Actually, I better get back to the kitchen, there's tons of stuff that I need to do and..." Ten tried to excuse himself, but Kun wouldn't have it.

"Ten, please, I just need a minute." 

Ten sighed and complied, leaving his place behind the counter and gently pulling Kun to the reading corner they had at the store, which consisted of a couple of chairs and bookcases, along with some red bricks and paintings on the walls.

Ten let go of Kun's hand once they were there, but Kun didn't let go from his arm, his strong gaze leading Ten's eyes to look at him.

"What is it?"

"Ten, did anything happen?" Kun asked him, straightforwardly. His eyes looked sad and pleading.

"Uh… No, why?" 

"I don't know, I thought…" He let go of Ten's arms, looking down. "I thought we were getting along, I quite liked hanging out with you. But then, after the holidays, you've been a bit… Distant. Acting kind of weird around me." He bit on his bottom lip, upset. "I don't know what happened or if I did something… If there was anything that I did or said, please tell me, Ten, so I can apologize and..."

"You didn't do anything." Ten hurried to get the blame off of Kun's shoulders, hating how upset he looked. If there was anyone to blame it was Ten who had feelings for an engaged man. "I'm just a little off lately, I'm sorry. It has nothing to do with you." He lied.

"Are you sure?" 

"I am." Ten squeezed his arm and looked into his eyes, to reassure him that everything was okay.

"That's great, then." Kun sighed in relief, the worry leaving his eyes. "I was kind of nervous that I could've done something wrong." 

"You're a prince, Kun, you could never do anything wrong." Ten bantered to make the mood between them a little lighter. It worked, since he got a laugh from Kun.

After that, Ten excused himself, saying he really had to go back to the kitchen and said goodbye to the boys. While working, though, Ten could only think about what suit he should wear to see the guy he liked getting married to another man.

.

"Okay, so now you hold it from this side and I'll hold it from the other." Ten instructed Yukhei as they did the complex task of taking a three-tier cake from the back of the bakery's car and getting it to the kitchen of the venue where the wedding reception was taking place.

Ten had arranged with Taeyong to arrive after the ceremony was over and everyone was already at the reception, so the cake could make an entrance and get everyone's attention. He didn't expect to be welcomed through the kitchen door by Kun, though.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Ten frowned while holding the cake with Yukhei. He thought Kun would be busy greeting the guests at his own wedding.

"Oh, Taeyong told me you were arriving soon, so I thought it would be best if someone you know came to help you with the cake." Kun explained.

"Yeah, it would help a lot. Thanks." Yukhei replied.

"Yukhei, please." Ten rolled his eyes at him. "Why do you have such strong muscles if you can't even carry this whole cake by yourself?"

"Hey..." Yukhei pouted, offended.

Kun guided them through the kitchen and helped the two of them place the cake on top of the right table, one with wheels that would help them take it to the event's main area.

"You look great, by the way." Kun told Ten as soon as the other did the cake's finishing touches and sighed, looking at it. Kun didn't even glance at the cake, his eyes were fixated on Ten.

"Uhm..." He looked at himself. Ten wouldn't say he hadn't thought a lot about how he would be dressing himself that evening because that would be a lie. He wanted to look his best, so he took his favorite suit, a marbled pattern dark green suit with black details and a black buttoned shirt underneath. His hair was neatly styled and he wore some silver earrings. Ten looked hot as fuck and he knew it. "Thanks. I really like this suit." 

Kun was wearing a dark blue suit with purple details and a purple tie over a white buttoned shirt. He had his hair pushed back and Ten could swear he had never seen a hotter man in his life. 

"You look great too." Was all he could say, since it was the man's wedding.

"The cake looks really good, I'm sure Taeyong will love it." Kun commented. Ten had agreed with Taeyong to make a semi naked cake with apricot jam filling and some blue colored flowers to decorate it on top and on the sides. Ten wondered why Kun only cared about what Taeyong thought if it was his wedding too, but decided not to say anything.

"Alright, shall we take this to the party?" Yukhei asked. He was also dressed up in a nice black suit because Ten had basically begged him to stay with him at the party, since he was already going to help him deliver the cake. Yukhei was the kind of friend you could count on with anything.

As soon as Ten and Yukhei showed up with the cake, placing the wheeled table underneath a spotlight, everybody cheered them on, complimenting how beautiful it looked. The music played loud enough so people could talk over it and a few of the guests were sitting in round tables while others were grooving on the dance floor, including the triplets who were running around, but had one of Kun's friends watching them. The decoration was elegant, but simple, all in white and blue and everyone seemed pretty excited to be there. Ten spotted Taeyong wearing a beautiful white suit next to a tall handsome guy with another white suit talking to the guests and it made Ten frown because they seemed to be greeting the people like the grooms of the wedding.

"Ten-gege!" The triplets interrupted Ten's train of thoughts and hugged him tight around his legs. 

"Oh my god, look at you guys!" Ten cooed at them, amazed at how adorable those three looked. They all had their hair pushed back and were wearing tiny black suits with black bow ties around their necks. "You look so cute!"

"Baba dressed us!" Yangyang replied, looking all happy.

"Your baba is a fashionista, then." Ten looked from the kids to Kun with an amused grin.

"They did want to come with spiderman t-shirts, so I guess I can take the credit after our intense battle..." Kun chuckled. He saw Taeyong and the tall guy approaching them and waved at the two. "Come on, let me introduce you to Johnny."

"Ten the cake is amazing! Thank you so much!" Taeyong hugged Ten, catching him by surprise. "It's exactly the way I wanted, you nailed it."

"Yeah, I didn't have any input on it, but as long as Taeyong is happy..." The tall guy, Johnny, looked down at a smiley Taeyong with fondness in his eyes.

"Wait..." Ten froze, confused all of a sudden.

"Ten, this is Johnny, my best friend and now Taeyong's husband." Kun introduced them and it was like something clicked inside Ten's brain. God, he was so stupid.

"Oh..." He got speechless, only being able to greet the guy with a handshake. Yukhei cleared his throat behind him and Ten remembered him all of a sudden. "Right, uhm, this is Yukhei, who works with me at the bakery and helped me deliver the cake today." 

"Very nice to meet you. Congratulations on your wedding." He greeted the two of them and the group started a conversation on how the ceremony was, how cute the triplets were going down the aisle with the rings, how happy the couple was, but Ten's mind could only think of all of those moments he had avoided Kun thinking he was about to be married.

The newlyweds excused themselves to make a few other rounds talking with the guests and Yukhei started playing with the triplets, so Kun and Ten made their way to a table around the corner where they could see the entire room.

"You want some champagne?" Kun offered him a glass from the waiter that was passing by and took another one for himself.

Ten took almost all of it down in one gulp.

"I… am so stupid." He commented, still kind of in shock by the sudden revelation. He was so sure Kun was Taeyong's groom.

"What? Why?" 

"I thought you and Taeyong were the ones getting married."

Kun was in the middle of taking a sip from his glass of champagne and he almost spilled it all because of Ten's words, choking a bit.

"Me and Taeyong?!" He raised his eyebrows, looking at Ten with widened eyes, his voice hoarse. "God, no, he's like my brother. Johnny and I were roommates in college and he met Taeyong at a party, so I've been their third-wheel ever since. And now I'm their best man." Kun explained. "But where did you get that idea from?!"

"I-I don't know, you came to me asking for a wedding cake, Taeyong called the triplets 'my boys' and then said 'our place' when he talked about where he lived..." Ten shrugged, holding his head in his hand as he watched Taeyong and Johnny look at each other with huge grins on their faces, like they were the only people in the room. Ten was feeling like a complete idiot. 

"Well, Taeyong and Johnny are my neighbours. They're those friends that I talked to you about, who supported me when I had the triplets." Kun told him. "They moved to an apartment across from my house when the kids were three months old and have been helping me ever since, babysitting whenever I need, cooking us some meals whenever I'm too busy… The kids love them and I couldn't have done any of it without them, so I asked them to be their godparents as well."

"It all makes so much sense now." Ten watched as Johnny ran to the dance floor to try and catch Hendery, blowing raspberries on the boy's belly, making him squeal with joy.

"Is that… Is that why you were avoiding me lately?" Kun asked, looking at Ten, who sighed and looked down.

"I'm so sorry, Kun… I didn't mean to be rude or anything, but once I got in my head that you and Taeyong were together, I thought I could be getting in the way of your family and ruining your relationship or something." He explained, picking on his nails over the table. "God forbid I ever become a homewrecker." 

Kun laughed out loud and rested his back against the chair, his gaze still fixed on Ten.

"And here I thought I was making it pretty clear that I was into you..."

"Wait, what?" Ten's face snapped to look back at Kun to see if he was being serious. He looked at Ten with a half smile on his lips, one of those that could warm Ten's heart in a second.

"I thought you had picked up on it, Eleven. Have you always been this slow when it comes to flirting?" He teased, winking at him.

"Hey, listen!" Ten pushed his shoulders back and looked him straight in the eye, acting offended. "I used to be very good at this in college, okay? I was known as the king of flirting, it only took me a look and the guys came running after me." He raised his finger towards Kun, making a point. The other only looked at him with an amused expression on his face and it annoyed Ten deeply. "It's not my fault you came in all warm-hearted and polite with those beautiful kids and that sexy hair of yours, that bright smile, the stupid nickname… It threw me off, okay! I suddenly started having doubts that such a perfect man was actually into me. I lost my game!" He huffed, getting more annoyed by the smile that never left Kun's lips, who was having way too much fun with Ten's ingenuity.

"Seriously, Ten? The origami and the lunch dates… Those were pretty obvious, weren't they?"

"Jaemin said so!" He raised his hands, frustrated. "But I was afraid of getting my hopes up and… Fuck, I wanna take that stupid grin off your face."

"And I wanna kiss you so bad right now." Kun's smirk turned into a strong gaze on Ten's lips that gave him a shiver down his spine.

"Come with me." Ten took Kun's hand and pulled him towards the direction of the bathroom, but Kun had a sudden spike of responsibility and stopped him.

"Wait, just a second. The kids." He quickly made his way towards Yukhei, who was still playing with the triplets on the dance floor, talked to him for a brief second and, looking around to see if no one was watching them, sneakily went to Ten's side, taking his hand in his. "Now we can go."

Ten led Kun to the men's restroom, hearing Kun giggling behind him.

"God, I feel like a teenager."

Ten put his index finger over his lips to tell Kun to stay quiet as he looked through the stalls. He quickly stood up and pretended to not be looking under the stalls when he heard one of the doors unlock and a guy come out of it, zipping his pants. Kun gave the guy a nod and pretended to be checking out his hair in the mirror, while Ten got inside one of the stalls. As soon as the guy finished washing his hands and left, Ten opened his door and pulled Kun inside with him.

He pulled Kun closer by his hips, his hands traveling towards Kun's arms and landing on the sides of his neck as they looked at each other, breaths hitching and Kun's strong gaze over Ten's lips, his mouth slightly parted open as his stare was filled with desire.

Not taking it anymore, Ten attacked Kun's lips in a passionate kiss, his hold on Kun's neck pulling him closer to deepen it. Feeling his lips allowing Ten's entrance, Ten angled his head to get better access, his tongue swirling around Kun's. He could feel Kun's big hands on his waist, pulling him closer and squeezing on his sides every time Ten bit on his bottom lip. Their teeth clicked against each other after Kun decided to push Ten against the wall to kiss him harder. 

Their heavy breathing got louder as they started to run out of air, their lips and body glued to each other. Eventually, they had to part to catch their breaths and, as Kun pulled away, Ten reflexively chased after his lips, the sight of his eyes closed and pursed lips making Kun let out a fond chuckle, his hands caressing the sides of Ten's torso. Ten let out a little whine at the distance, causing Kun's heart to flutter with the sound.

"I've wanted to do this for quite a while..." Kun commented while giving Ten's face little pecks as the other watched him so close like this, his chest going up and down as he tried to regain his breath.

"If only you had told me that when we first met, we could've saved a lot of trouble and confusion."

"I'll keep that in mind for the next time we see each other." Kun winked at him, continuing to kiss all over Ten's face, going down to his jawline and neck. "I had it all planned out, you know?" He spoke while his lips brushed against Ten's skin, the vibration giving Ten shivers all over his body. "I asked Taeyong if I could invite you, so I could ask you to a slow dance and sweep you off your feet." 

He gave Ten's neck a little bite which made the other's hand go up to the back of Kun's neck and grab at his hair, encouraging him to continue. Kun smirked and went on, giving the skin open mouthed kisses and running the tip of his tongue over the places he'd just bit. "Then, you'd go crazy for me and we'd kiss in the middle of the dance floor." He backed away a bit to look at Ten in the eyes, a smile on his lips at how silly he was for planning all of this. "It's how I thought this night would go."

"Well, it seems like we jumped right to the kissing part." Ten spoke, pulling on Kun's bottom lip with his thumb. "We can always slow dance later. Sometimes things go better if they're unplanned." He smirked and gave Kun a peck on the lips, before leading him back to his neck. It was definitely one of Ten's most sensitive spots in his body and he could already feel himself melting by the sensation.

Kun obediently complied, beginning to suck on Ten's neck while his hands pulled on his hips, getting them even closer. He could feel Ten pulling on his hair and could hear the delighted sighs that came from his lips. His hands roamed Ten's hips and waist until it landed on his butt and squeezed his cheeks, getting an arch of his back as a reaction. 

Ten took Kun's face with his hands and led him back to his lips. Sucking onto Kun's bottom lip, Ten's hand slowly made its way to Kun's bulge and palmed him down there, smiling into the kiss when he heard Kun let out a soft moan. Kun's hips jolted forward when Ten began to lightly squeeze and trace his length with his thumb over the fabric of Kun's pants. He was already pretty hard and his breath got heavier when Ten started to touch him, squeezing Ten's butt even harder, their lips brushing together in a messy kiss.

"Ten..." He whined, hiding his face in the crook of Ten's neck. Kun was feeling a bunch of sensations all at once, but he suddenly remembered where he was and who was waiting for them outside. "We better stop."

"Don't want to." Ten mumbled, his voice muffled by Kun's blazer while his hand pulled Kun's hips closer to him by his belt.

"Me neither." Kun sighed, realizing he had to be the responsible one between them. He pulled apart, holding onto Ten's hands, that were grabbing onto his blazer, and caressed his knuckles with his thumbs, looking at Ten with a soft smile on his lips. "We can definitely continue this some other time." 

Ten pouted, pretending to be upset.

"We better."

Kun gave him a peck on the lips and two others on his nose and forehead, before leaving the stall. He checked himself out in the mirror to adjust his clothes and cover up his bulge as much as he could and waited for Ten so they could leave the restroom.

"Baba!" A shout coming all the way from the dance floor brought Kun back to reality as he saw Hendery run all the way towards him, seeming upset. He took the boy in his arms to see what was wrong. "Yangyang ate two sweets already but you said we can't have them before the cake!" 

"He's lying! Baba, Dery lies!" Yangyang came running too, trying to defend himself. His face proved him wrong, though, since the boy had chocolate all over his mouth.

"Seems like you're the one who's lying, baobei." Kun reprimanded him, taking his handkerchief from his pocket to wipe on the child's mouth. "Now, what did we say about lying?"

"Good boys don't lie." Yangyang pouted, looking down. "Sorry, baba..."

"It's okay, Yang. But you don't have to do things in secret, okay? You can just ask me, Taeyong or Johnny." He told him and Yangyang nodded, understanding. Kun put Hendery down and told him that he and Xiaojun could also have a sweet now that Yangyang had some already. The boys went back to tell their brother the news and Kun sighed, looking at Ten, who was watching it all unfold with a tender look in his eyes. "It's like this. Immediately back to father mode right after… doing that in the bathroom."

Ten giggled, embracing Kun to hide his face in the crook of his neck and feeling the other loop an arm around his waist, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"There you two are!" They heard Taeyong's voice and Ten quickly backed away, pretending like he was doing nothing. Taeyong approached them alongside Johnny, the couple holding suspicious looks on their faces as they gazed between Ten and Kun. "We've been looking for you everywhere, we're about to cut the cake."

"Sorry, I was just… Showing Kun something in the kitchen." Ten gave him a lame excuse, causing Johnny to laugh out loud.

"I guess you two were very busy then, huh." He teased them both, a playful smirk on his lips. "So busy looking for that thing that Kun's hair is even disheveled." Johnny pointed to the back of his head and Kun widened his eyes, Ten helping him fix his hair. "Nice hickey there, by the way, Ten." He motioned to Ten's neck, before taking Taeyong's hand in mid-laughter and turning around. "Anyway, let's cut the cake." 

"Fuck." Ten put his hand over the spot where Johnny had pointed at. It was indeed kind of sore. He looked at Kun with narrowed eyes.

"Look, in my defense, you didn't want me to stop." He raised his hands in the air.

"Damn you, Qian Kun." Ten cursed him while trying to bite down a smile, his hands holding onto the hem of Kun's blazer. He was too infatuated to be mad at him for a hickey. It did feel amazing in the bathroom, though.

"Baba, the cake!" Xiaojun appeared to warn his dad, pulling him by his hand to where everyone was standing in a circle to cheer for Johnny and Taeyong as they cut the cake with smiles on their faces and hands over each other. Kun held Xiaojun and Hendery in his arms while Ten held Yangyang, the boy's cheek glued to Ten's as they all watched the newlyweds take cute pictures with the cake and a few others embracing each other. Everyone looked at them, except Ten, who only had eyes for Kun and the kids they were holding. He felt like he was dreaming.

They went back to the table once the waiters began to serve the cake to the guests, Kun helping the triplets eat their slices without getting any of it on their cute little suits. 

It had been a while since Ten had seen Yukhei, so he looked around the room until he was able to find his friend flirting with a random girl behind a pillar, his arm on the wall behind her as he sweet talked his way into a kiss. Ten chuckled, but then took a mental note that he could not let Sicheng know about this.

"Baba, I need to poop." Hendery put his hands over his tummy and shook his little legs, looking at his dad with pleading eyes.

"All of a sudden?!" Kun widened his eyes, stressed. "Oh god… Okay. Does anyone else need to go right now?" He asked his other children, who only shook their heads. "Are you sure? No pee pee? No poo poo?"

Yangyang slowly raised his hand, sheepishly. 

"Pee pee."

"Alright, then, let's go." Kun stood up, taking each of their hands in his. "Ten, do you mind watching Xiaojun? I promise it won't take long."

"Of course not, go pee pee and poo poo." Ten bantered, making Kun chuckle before going to the bathroom with his kids.

Xiaojun had already finished his cake and just sat there for a while playing with his fork, looking like he was thinking about something. Then, all of a sudden, he turned to Ten and opened his arms at him, asking for a hug. Ten grinned widely as he took the boy and sat him on his lap, each of his little legs shaking on Ten's sides as he played with the buttons on Ten's shirt.

"I like you, Ten-gege." He told Ten in a small voice, which made the man's heart feel like it was melting. Ten held him tight against his chest, almost crushing the kid and gave him a bunch of kisses on the top of his head.

"I like you too, kiddo. So much."

A slow ballad started playing and a few couples made their way to the dance floor, holding each other, including Taeyong and Johnny.

"Come on, Xiaojun, let's dance."

With no Kun in sight, Ten took Xiaojun to the dance floor, swaying with him as the boy had his arms around Ten's neck and his head lying down on his shoulder. Taeyong smiled at them, showing Ten and Xiaojun to Johnny, both finding it very cute.

Before the song was over, Kun appeared with two kids in his hands and a surprised expression on his face, his eyes almost watering with the sight in front of him. Yangyang and Hendery quickly scattered to play together and Kun approached Ten with a fond smile on his lips. To see the man he was into be like this with his kid meant the world to him.

"He's almost falling asleep." He took a look at Xiaojun's face on Ten's shoulder, since Ten couldn't see it properly.

"Well, I guess this might be a very boring song for him." Ten joked, caressing the boy's back.

"I can't believe my son got to slow dance with you before I did." Kun put his hands on Ten's hips, Xiaojun standing in between them as the two smiled lovingly at each other.

"We'll have plenty of time." Ten told him when the song changed to a more upbeat one. He didn't actually mean that only talking about the slow dance, but also this thing they were doing. He really hoped it lasted.

"I guess I gotta take them home, now. It's past their bedtime, that's why this one's sleepy and the other two are getting cranky already." Kun observed, giving Ten a sad smile.

Ten handed Kun a nearly passed out Xiaojun into his arms, trying not to do any abrupt movements to not wake him up.

"I really want to see you soon, Ten." Kun took Ten's hand in his free one, caressing it.

"You know where I work. Stop by anytime and I'm all yours."

"All mine." Kun grinned and gave his hand a gentle squeeze before turning around so he could look for the other two and take them home.

.

The next day was a Saturday and Ten was so tired from the night before that he didn't want to work at all, but at least he didn't have a lot to do and was planning to leave early, since Jaemin would cover for him for the rest of the day.

"Ten! What the hell?!" Jaemin entered through the back door of the bakery with Yukhei and Sicheng right behind him, coming in for their shifts. "Yukhei just told me on the way here that Taeyong got married to another guy and Kun was actually his best man?!"

"Well… Turns out I'm that stupid." Ten shrugged, trying to hide a laugh.

"So, he's actually single?" Sicheng asked, curious as he took off his coat and put on his apron.

"He's single." Ten answered, itching to get to the major point of the gossip, but holding himself to keep the mystery. "And he was pretty annoyed that I didn't get that he was flirting after all the lunch dates and stuff..."

"I told you! It was a date!" Jaemin exclaimed, happy with himself.

"Goddammit Ten, why didn't you text me all this?!" Sicheng gave him a light push, annoyed. 

"Well, me and Yukhei went back home at three in the morning after dancing a lot with Johnny and Taeyong. Turns out they're pretty cool."

"But still! I would've seen it as soon as I woke up! What are the privileges of being your best friend if I don't get to know all of this in first hand?" Sicheng crossed his arms over his chest, pouting. Ten smiled, amused.

"There's more." 

All three of them stared at Ten with widened eyes, waiting. Yukhei hadn't even taken off his coat and bag yet, too entertained in the story.

"We made out hard in the bathroom." 

"Oh my god!" Jaemin put his hand over his mouth, excited. Meanwhile, Sicheng motioned to give him a kick on his legs, but Ten dodged just in time. He let out a loud giggle, feeling like he was in high school.

"So, that's what you were doing when Kun asked me to watch the kids and you were gone for quite a while!" Yukhei pointed at him, his eyes were two large balls with how shocked he was.

"Yup. We sneaked out, but even Johnny and Taeyong got what was going on." 

"Wait, is that a hickey?" Jaemin pointed to his neck, which Ten tried to cover up with a turtleneck sweater, but it was still visible when he moved sometimes. Sicheng pulled on the turtleneck and widened his eyes when he saw it.

"Listen, it was pretty good, I don't regret it."

"Seriously, how old are you?" Sicheng raised his brows at him, but Ten couldn't even give him a clever comeback, since Renjun interrupted them, his head peeking through the kitchen door.

"Ten, I'm not your doorman, but Kun's here."

Yukhei and Jaemin gasped with widened eyes, excited.

"Fuck, he didn't tell me he was coming." Ten quickly took off his apron and fixed his clothes, feeling kind of nervous. "We didn't even text or anything since last night."

"You're kidding, right?" Yukhei asked. "Ten, everyone knows you're supposed to text after to show the person that you're still interested!" He raised his hands in the air, frustrated.

"I'm not used to this, okay? I don't usually do more than one date." He explained. Ten had always been more of a hook-up and one-night stand kind of guy, having had only two boyfriends all his life and even those relationships lasted about three months. This kind of movie romance with the nice guy and the sweet moments? It was all unscattered territory for him.

Ten took a deep breath before opening the kitchen door, but realized all three of his friends were right behind him, with curious eyes.

"What? You're coming with me?"

"Of course not, there's a window on the kitchen door for a reason. To gossip." Jaemin explained, completely serious.

Ten rolled his eyes and opened the door, immediately catching sight of Kun and the triplets, who were all standing by the counter, waiting for him. 

"Ten-ge!" Hendery saw him first and went running to hug him, the two others coming right after. He bent down to hug the kids tight and looked up, meeting Kun's soft eyes on him.

"Hi." He gave Ten his usual warm smile. Kun looked even more handsome than ever, wearing a fluffy black and white striped sweater that made him look very cozy. Ten just wanted to cuddle up against him and watch some movies. That's how cheesy and soft Kun made Ten feel.

"Hi." He said after a while of staring, clearly embarrassing himself. Kun noticed how Ten looked at him and let out a chuckle, taking the kids away from Ten so he could stand up properly.

"We were going to this place where they serve some delicious chocolate fondue. You want to come?"

"Yes, Ten-ge, come with us!" Yangyang pulled on his hand.

"Of course I'll go. How can I deny chocolate and the opportunity to spend some time with you?" Ten ruffled Yangyang's hair.

"Are you free right now? We can wait, if you want." Kun told him.

"Nope, I was about to get home, actually." 

"Then, let's go." Kun smiled at him, but then caught something in the corner of his eye, looking behind Ten. "Wait..." He narrowed his eyes.

Ten turned around to look at whatever caught Kun's attention and saw Yukhei's, Jaemin's and Sicheng's heads huddled close together looking through the tiny window on the kitchen door. Ten sighed, turning back around.

"Don't mind them, they're just curious and annoying. Come on."

As they left the bakery, though, Xiaojun took Ten's hand while the other two held each other's and Kun's.

"Ten-ge, you need to hold baba's hand." Hendery pointed to their free hands almost brushing against each other as Ten and Kun walked side by side.

"Yes, baba says we have to hold our hands on the street." Yangyang agreed, showing his hands and Hendery's clasped together. "For safety!"

Ten looked at Kun, who had completely red ears, and he couldn't help but blush as well.

"We don't have to do it if you don't want to." He told Ten.

"Well, if the kids said it's safer..." Ten smirked and took Kun's hand in his, intertwining their fingers.

The five of them took up almost the entire crosswalk, but thankfully the fondue place wasn't very far, so they didn't have to listen to much complaining from the people walking behind them. Ten wouldn't move an inch even if they yelled at him, though.

They got to the place and Kun didn't let go of Ten's hand until they made their way to a table and he had to put the kids on high chairs. Ten helped him and the two of them sat in front of the kids, who were screaming "Chocolate!" in excitement. Kun gave them some coloring papers and crayons to settle down before the fondue arrived and then finally took a sigh in relief when all three of them went quiet, turning to look at Ten.

"Thank you for coming with us."

"It's my pleasure, Jasmine Tea." Ten smiled back at him.

"So, how was last night after we left?"

"Well, you'll be surprised to hear that me and Johnny hit it off quite well. He and I got the same dumb sense of humor, so I felt represented." He told Kun, who chuckled. "Yukhei was flirting with this girl, so I stayed dancing with Taeyong and Johnny and even met Johnny's little brother, Mark. We went home at around three in the morning, so I passed out on my bed. Sorry that I didn't text you or anything." After what Yukhei had told Ten, he wanted to make sure that Kun knew he wasn't just a fling to him.

"That's totally fine." Kun's grin eased Ten's nerves. "I'm glad you and the guys had fun. Wish I could've stayed longer, though."

"Well, these little munchkins here need their sleep so they can go back to terrorizing you in the morning." Ten joked.

"Don't even tell me about it. Xiaojun woke me up at six and made me watch cartoons with him all morning."

The waiter arrived with a platter of fruits and a big bowl of hot chocolate, along with some sticks for them to dip the fruit in chocolate. There were also marshmallows, which the kids went crazy about.

Before Kun could even notice, Hendery had already dipped a strawberry in the chocolate.

"Hendery, wait, it's hot!" But it was too late, since the boy had already stuffed his mouth and quickly spat it out on his plate, burning his tongue. "Hey, what did I tell you? I warned you guys before about it being hot." Kun wiped his mouth, a worried look on his face as Hendery cried hard. He gave the kid a glass of water to calm down his tongue, but he still cried, since the pain wouldn't go away. Kun, then, stood up and picked Hendery to put him sitting on his lap as he examined the boy's tongue. "It's nothing serious, it'll stop burning soon." Hendery hugged his dad tight as Kun rocked him and gave him kisses on his head, trying to make him feel better. Watching this, Ten's heart felt like it was going to explode.

While Kun was busy with Hendery, Ten taught the other two to blow on their food before eating it and helped them out with the dripping chocolate, also wiping their mouths. It took a long time before he could actually eat and Ten couldn't even imagine how Kun could do this every day.

"Hey, Ten." Kun called his attention as soon as Hendery had stopped crying and was back to eating, blowing on his food just like his brothers. Ten looked at Kun while he ate a chocolate dipped marshmallow. "I was wondering if you… Would like to go on a proper date with me? Not a lunch date, a real one. And without the kids, of course." Kun asked him, looking kind of nervous and a lot less confident than he did the night before.

"I was already preparing myself to ask, if you didn't." Ten giggled. "Of course I will."

Their date was on a Wednesday evening and Kun picked him up after his shift. They didn't have anything special planned after dinner, but Ten had prepared a little something for them to spend a cozy end of the evening. 

They had dinner at a fancy restaurant, had fun talking about what they were like in school, and then made their way to Ten's building, where he took Kun to the rooftop and laid down a blanket and some soft pillows for them, bringing with him a basket of some of his favorite pastries.

"Wow, you thought about it all." Kun complimented him, getting cozy under the two blankets Ten had brought to cover them and looking up at the sky. It was a perfect night. The stars shone brightly above them and it wasn't so freezing cold like the past week, but they still needed blankets over their coats, since they were in the middle of winter. 

"Well, you're not the only romantic one between the two of us, Kun. I gotta get some credit too." Ten gave him a wink as he settled down under the blankets with him. Kun's arm went around Ten's shoulders and he pulled him closer to warm him up. 

"This is nice." Kun looked at Ten, their faces very close to each other, and found out Ten's eyes were staring directly at his lips, his own mouth parted open. His heart skipped a beat with the sight and he couldn't resist it, leaning in to take Ten's lips in his, something he's been craving ever since the night of the wedding.

Kun's free hand went to gently cup Ten's cheek, his lips giving Ten sweet and gentle kisses. His tongue teased Ten's lips until they parted, allowing him entrance for a deeper kiss. Ten put his legs over Kun's and the other held his thigh with his hand, squeezing it as he bit on Ten's bottom lip. Ten pulled him closer by grabbing onto his collar with both of his hands, eager for him, while his tongue swirled around Kun's, hearing him let out a small sigh. He smelled amazing, like a blackberry scent, and Ten let it overflow his senses, feeling light-headed after a while of kissing, leaning his head in the crook of Kun's neck and taking in his scent while he hugged him tight.

Kun adjusted the blanket over them to perfectly wrap the two of them in a warm cocoon and held Ten with his arms around his waist for a while, giving him pecks on his face and neck.

"You know, at the wedding you told me something that stuck in my head." Kun said, while rubbing Ten's back and the other hummed in response as a sign for him to go on. "You said you doubted yourself because you started to get insecure and wonder how a 'perfect' man like me would want anything with you. But like, aside from the fact that I'm the opposite of perfect and my kids could actually prove it, have you taken a look at yourself, Ten?" He paused, but as Ten didn't say anything, Kun continued. He wanted Ten to see him like he did.

"First of all, after our first visit, I kept going back at the bakery not only because my kids loved it, but also because I found the guy who took our orders pretty cute with the most adorable smile and I wanted to see him more. Even if I didn't get to talk to him, just looking at him made my day ten times better." Hearing this, Ten could only tighten his hold onto Kun, at a loss for words. "Then, when I saw him being so sweet with my kids, that was when I knew it was really it for me, I couldn't let him go that easy. I had to do something to win that cute baker's heart."

Kun softly caressed Ten's hair.

"I had my eyes on you ever since we first met, so quit saying I'm too much for you, okay? If I'm perfect, then you're just the same."

Ten raised his head with watery eyes, blinking a few times to prevent the tears from falling.

"Do you want to see me crying right now? Is that what you want?" He sniffed, complaining jokingly. Kun gave him a peck on his red nose.

"I'm just saying."

"Well, prepare me for it first. You're making me feel like I'm in a movie or something." Ten picked up his basket of sweets and put a mini cream donut on Kun's mouth, stuffing it and making him spill sugar all over as he tried not to laugh. "Eat." Ten ordered him, but his face had a soft expression on it as he watched Kun munch on his food. "Thank you, Kun." He spoke sincerely, his fingers fixing a few strands of his hair. Kun attempted a smile with his mouth full as a response.

"Actually, Ten, there's something else I need to talk to you about." Kun told him as soon as he was done with his mini donut. "Something a bit more serious." 

Ten looked at him, nervously munching on a mini donut as well.

"Listen, I haven't been in an actual relationship ever since my kids were born." Kun revealed, looking straight at Ten as he spoke to him. "I've had hookups and one-night stands and that was it, nothing meaningful. But with you… It's different. You make me feel like I want something more. Something real." Ten nodded back at him. That was exactly like Kun made him feel as well, even when he hadn't properly talked to Kun before, only watching him and his beautiful family from afar. 

"But, before anything, I need to know if you're with me. Diving into this, committed to make this thing between us work." He looked back at Ten's eyes to let him know he was being serious. "Because, Ten, I'm not a one-man package. I bring three small children with me and there's no way I can let them go. Once you take me, you take them too and I just need you to know this beforehand, before we go any further."

Ten nodded once again, silent for a while and thinking of what would be the best thing to respond, which made Kun nervous, feeling like he needed to add a few things.

"I'm sorry I'm being so straight-forward like this. I know you might not be used to this and it may not be what you signed up for, so it could scare you off, but..."

"Hey, it's okay, I know." Ten stopped him, holding his hands. "I know your family comes first, Kun, as it should. And I know you bring your kids into this relationship. And I don't mind." Ten gave him a half smile, holding a strong gaze with him. "I love your kids and this has been a great experience for me. I get to learn with them every single day. And I want something real with you too. Don't worry, you won't scare me off that easily." He raised his hand to place it on Kun's cheek and the other leaned his head against it, his eyes closing as he breathed in deeply, taking in that moment.

With his eyes closed, Kun didn't realize Ten leaning in until his lips were brushing against his in a gentle kiss. Ten breathed in Kun's scent before pressing harder against his mouth, both of his hands on the sides of Kun's face. They parted their lips and deepened the kiss and in a swift move, Kun pulled Ten onto his lap, his legs straddling him on each side of his hips. Kun's hands looped around Ten's small waist, pulling him closer, and Ten's went around Kun's neck, kissing him passionately.

It took them quite a while of kissing before they decided to back away to catch their breaths, foreheads leaning against each other and eyes closed as they tried to regain the air.

"Do you… Want to go down to my apartment?" Ten suggested, opening his eyes to see how Kun reacted to it. He calmly opened his eyes and looked back at Ten, giving him a peck on the lips.

"Another time, maybe?" He asked, caressing Ten's back. "It's late and I really gotta take the triplets from Mark because the kid has class tomorrow morning." He explained. That night Kun couldn't count on Taeyong and Johnny for babysitting since the couple was on honeymoon, so he'd asked for Mark's help, instead.

"Another time, then." Ten agreed, giving him a quick kiss before getting up and helping Kun fold the blankets. "What do you say about this weekend? Are you free Saturday? It's my day off."

"I'm sorry, no." He gave Ten a sad smile, sighing and looking stressed as he thought about that weekend. "We're working on this big design project for this really rich client who lives out of town and so far we've been doing it through pictures of his condo, but not everything can be done like that, so I'll have to visit it to get a proper look at the place. And we've scheduled this Saturday." Kun explained, pinching the bridge of his nose. "And I'll have to stay the whole day out so I really gotta compensate Mark later for missing his whole Saturday to babysit."

"I can do it." Ten blurted out without even thinking about it first. But, after saying it, he realized how much he actually wanted to spend a day with the kids.

"What?" Kun looked at him, incredulous. "Ten, you know I have three toddlers, right? And I don't think you've done this before…?"

"I haven't, but I gotta start at some point, right?" Ten said, getting even more convinced by the second. "I mean, of course it'll be hard, but you can tell me everything I need to know and if I have any questions I'll call you." He tried to make Kun see there was no problem at all. "Plus, I'd love to spend some time alone with the boys and get to learn their routine, it'll be so cool."

"Right..." Kun narrowed his eyes at him, thinking about it, but eventually sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "You know what? I'll take it. I trust you and I trust that you'll do your best."

"Yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you." Ten jumped excitedly and took Kun's face in his hands for a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/chankgyunie)!


	3. Chapter 3

Ten rang the doorbell to Kun's two floor house and, through the door, he could hear the children screaming, scaring him right away.

"Yangyang, what did I tell you? Don't touch that, you're gonna hurt yourself!" He could hear Kun's muffled voice approaching the door. "Coming!"

A disheveled Kun opened the door, with messy hair, a black tie loosely hung around his neck, not even knotted yet, and his white buttoned-up shirt wide open, showing his quite defined abs. He looked tired, pinching the bridge of his nose. Very different from how Ten was used to seeing him at the bakery.

"Welcome to the chaos." Kun leaned his head on the door frame. "I'm sorry you're seeing us like this, but it's reality. This is one of those days." He sighed, finally closing the buttons on his shirt, not even realizing Ten had been staring at his abs for a while, and rolling up his sleeves to his elbows. "I'm really late, but they wouldn't give me a break."

"It's fine, babe. I'll help and you can go get ready." Ten assured him, stroking his shoulder for comfort. Kun gave him a half smile, appreciating it.

"Are you sure you can handle it, though?" Kun frowned, worried. "Look, if you want, I can totally call Mark last minute, he can come here and help you."

"Nope, I can do this on my own. I want to." Ten gave him a reassuring grin so he could see he meant it and Kun nodded, letting him in.

Kun's house wasn't big, but it looked enough for the four of them. The living room was the largest, since it had not much furniture around, only a big couch, a TV stand and a bookcase, the rest of the big space was cleared for the boys to run around or had toys scattered around the room. The kitchen had an open concept: a small island, the dinner table with three high chairs around it in the corner and a lot of safety guards on the oven, cabinets and drawers. Apart from that, there was a staircase that led to the bathroom and the bedrooms.

"Hey boys, look who's here!" The kids were either playing on the puzzle play mat on the corner of the living room or jumping on the couch when Kun called their attention to Ten's presence.

"Ten-ge!"

"Hi, babies!" Ten kneeled down to hug them one by one.

"Ten's here to spend the day with you while baba goes off to work, alright?" Kun explained to them, who nodded.

"I also brought a belated Christmas gift." Ten told them, picking up a bag with a huge box that he had put on the side when he came in, causing the boys to shout in excitement.

"What?" Kun noticed the box for the first time, surprised. "Ten, you didn't have to."

"I wanted to." Ten smiled at him, watching the kids tear the wrapping paper apart. "It's a train station lego set. Safe for three-year olds." He explained. "I was thinking of buying a gift for each of them, but I thought how it could cause some problems with sharing and claiming things as their own, so I went for something they could build together, instead." Ten didn't know the first thing about raising a child, so he didn't actually know if he made the right decision, but it made sense in his head.

"You did the right thing." Kun approached him, wrapping an arm around his waist so he could pull him closer to give him a kiss on the temple and then a quick peck on the lips without his kids seeing. They still hadn't crossed that bridge of how to explain to the boys what they were and, honestly, Ten was kind of afraid to ask.

"Baba, look! The conductor!" Xiaojun showed him the toy and Kun smiled at him.

"That's so cool, baobei."

"Actually, I brought something for their baba too." Ten smirked at Kun's surprised expression and handed him a box. He opened it to see a complete tea set in elegant dark green ceramic containing a tea pot and five cups, along with a few different types of tea leaves. "It's your belated birthday gift, since I didn't know about it before."

"Wow, Ten, this is awesome." Kun looked in awe by it. "They won't be as good as the teas from the bakery, though." He joked.

"Well, at least it can help calm you down when you're not there to have our special tea." 

"Thank you, really." He smiled, appreciatively. "Now come on, let me show you around."

Kun explained to Ten that the kids were used to having lunch at around 12 pm and that he didn't have time to prepare them anything, but that Ten could make a quick pasta and it would solve it. He showed him where everything was and told him about the boys' routine. After lunch, they could play or watch cartoons and then take a bath before a quick afternoon nap that shouldn't last more than an hour, otherwise they wouldn't feel sleepy at night.

As Kun explained it to him, Ten wrote it all down on his phone, to make sure he wouldn't mess it up. There were a lot of rules, after all. Kun noticed he was taking notes and giggled, finding it cute.

"You're gonna do fine, you'll see."

While Kun finished getting dressed, Ten helped the kids build their new train station, which took a lot of space on the living room floor and Ten realized Kun might hate him later for the mess.

"Okay, I'm going." Kun gave the three boys a kiss on the forehead. He looked really handsome in a black suit and Ten was sad to see him go, just like the triplets who looked up at him with quivering lips. "Don't cry, baba will be back to put you to sleep, okay? Will you be good to Ten?"

All three of them nodded and Kun gave Ten a kiss on the top of his head before giving him a reassuring smile and leaving Ten all alone with the kids.

"Alright, it's just the four of us now. We'll have fun, right boys?" Ten asked, worried. None of them answered him, too intrigued in their new toy, but Ten didn't mind it. At least they were quiet, he thought. Too bad that didn't last for long.

The triplets played with the train for about half an hour, which made Ten relaxed enough to think that everything would run smoothly, even taking his free time to play games on his phone. But then, the boys got bored and Ten had to turn on the TV for them, but they were still agitated, running around, and Ten was afraid that they could fall or bump their head onto something, not being able to take his eyes away from them. How could parents handle doing chores at home without watching their kids' every step? Ten was terrified.

"I'm hungry." Hendery complained to him, with his hand on his tummy and Ten realized it was already 11 am.

"Right. I'll go make something for us, okay? Will you boys behave while I cook?" Hendery nodded, but that promise wasn't kept for even five minutes, since the boys followed him to run around in the kitchen, curious about what Ten was doing. He stood over the oven like a fortress, terrified that they'd go anywhere near the boiling water.

When Ten thought he was finally safe, once the boys went back to playing in the living room, he suddenly heard a scream and ran to see what was going on, finding Hendery and Yangyang fighting and hitting each other with some toys.

"Hey! Hey! What's going on here? Since when do you fight?!"

Both the boys started stuttering, failing to explain how the fight began in the first place.

"No pushing and no hitting your brother. Now, come on, hug." Ten crossed his arms over his chest to seem mad and respectful, but they only obeyed him when Ten lightly pushed them against each other, forcing the hug. They were still not happy, though, but Ten didn't have time for that since he started smelling something burning and ran back to the kitchen. "Fuck, my sauce!" He exclaimed, quickly turning to the kids, who were laughing at him. "Pretend you didn't hear that!"

Thankfully, Ten had been able to save his tomato sauce and make them a nice meal. Feeding them was a whole other story, though, since he had to keep an eye on all three of them, so they wouldn't spill sauce or meatballs everywhere, and still manage to eat his food at the same time. Yangyang was the first one to finish his meal, quickly climbing off his seat so he could go back to playing. Ten was so focused on convincing Xiaojun and Hendery to finish what was on their plates that he didn't even realize Yangyang had disappeared from his line of sight, only hearing the smashing sound of glass on the floor.

With a jump, he turned around and caught Yangyang standing on the kitchen counter and holding onto the top cabinet handles that could easily open up and knock him down.

"Yangyang!" Ten ran as fast as he could to catch the boy in his arms, even stepping on the broken glass that was all over the floor. He heard the other boys starting to cry with the scare, following him. "Stop!" He yelled, freezing them in place, so they wouldn't step on the glass and hurt themselves. "Boys, please don't come to the kitchen, okay? You might really hurt yourselves, this is dangerous. Do you understand?" Hendery and Xiaojun nodded with tears on their eyes, still scared by the loud sound.

Meanwhile, Yangyang held tight onto Ten's neck, crying as well. Ten took his face in his hand to look at him in the eye.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" The boy couldn't answer him, only crying louder, and Ten looked down to realize that what he broke was a cookie jar. "Baby, you can ask me to get it for you next time, okay? But you can't climb the furniture, it's very dangerous. You could fall and really hurt yourself." He warned Yangyang, who nodded in between sobs, snot coming out of his nose. Ten carefully took him to the living room and cleaned his face, then made a barricade with chairs on the way to the kitchen to prevent any of them from going there while he cleaned the place.

They quietly watched cartoons while Ten cleaned the floor, taking a double take to make sure there weren't any shards of glass around. When he was finished, Ten rested his back on the wall, taking a deep breath, only then realizing he was shaking from the big scare he just had. So many bad things could've happened. What if Yangyang had fallen onto the floor with glass all around? What if any of the boys had run bare feet there? He'd have to run to the hospital and Kun would never look him in the face again. And all of that because he wasn't able to keep an eye on all three of them. Fuck, what did he get himself into? Did he really think he was capable of doing this? After having absolutely no experience with kids? Kun had entrusted him with his kids, the loves of his life, and he had promised him he could do it. But, could he? He wasn't so sure about that now.

Ten jumped with the vibration of his phone ringing in his pocket, interrupting his thoughts. He took a few deep breaths when he saw Kun's name on the display, like he'd sensed something had happened. Taking a final look at the kids to make sure they were still on the couch watching TV, he picked up the phone.

"Hello." Ten tried to sound okay and hoped Kun wouldn't notice his shaky voice.

"Hey. How's everything?" Kun wondered, completely calm and oblivious that Ten was freaking out. "Did they have lunch already?"

"Uh, fine. Everything's fine." Ten gulped, trying to seem calm as well. "I cooked them some spaghetti with meatballs. They loved it."

"Oh, that's great! Hope you're having fun. Remember, you can call me anytime, okay?" Kun reminded him.

"Sure. I'll see you in the evening." Ten hurried to turn off the phone, taking a deep breath before swiping on his phone to find another contact number.

"Hello? Ten?" Johnny answered the phone.

"Hi, I'm so sorry to disturb your honeymoon." Ten apologized, running his fingers through his hair. He couldn't believe he was calling Johnny for this. But, they had hit it off at the wedding and Johnny was actually experienced in this, so he was his only hope.

"It's alright, we've just finished lunch anyway. Is everything okay?" Johnny must've noticed how distressed Ten sounded on the phone.

"Uh, no? I almost got the boys killed or at least hospitalized." Ten exaggerated, being his usual drama queen.

"What?! What happened?"

"Yangyang climbed on the kitchen counter when I wasn't looking and knocked down a jar of cookies and almost fell on the floor over the shards of glass and all three of them started crying and I feel like crying too and..."

"Hey, hey, calm down. It was just a scare." Johnny tried to ease him a bit. "These things happen all the time, children are clueless, they'll climb around and touch everything."

"But Johnny, it's my first time babysitting them. What would happen if they had to go to the hospital or something?" He pinched the bridge of his nose, stressed out. "I really like Kun, Johnny. If his kids get hurt on my watch, he'll never forgive me. I can't believe I thought I could handle this..."

"Didn't you hear yourself? You're talking about things that could have happened, but didn't. They're all okay." Johnny pointed out. "And Kun would forgive you, he's crazy for you." He said, getting a smile out of Ten in midst of his frustration. "Trust me, he's gone through many scares like that as well."

"I'm afraid they'll do something worse." Ten admitted, sighing with stress. "What do I do to calm them down and keep an eye on them?"

"Well, Kun told me about how much they loved making that gingerbread house with you, so maybe you can bake something with them?" Johnny suggested. "It will keep them focused and you'll have an eye on all three of them."

"Yeah… Maybe you're right. That's something I can definitely do." Ten let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Thanks Johnny, you're a lifesaver, really. Tell Taeyong I said hi." 

"I will. Hang in there!"

Ten sighed, finally feeling himself calm down. He could do this. It wouldn't be a piece of cake, but he could survive it. Putting his phone back in his pocket, Ten cleared the path to the kitchen, finally feeling like he could face the kids again.

"Ten-ge, you sad?" Yangyang approached him, looking upset. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, baby, come here." Ten hugged him tight, feeling his heart fill with love for the boy. "It's fine. You just scared me, that's all. As long as you promise to not do that again, okay?" Yangyang nodded and Ten kissed the top of his head.

They quietly played and watched cartoons during the afternoon and Ten even joined them while watching Frozen, knowing all of the songs by heart already, since it was a guilty pleasure of his. Then, it was bath time. Brushing their teeth had already been a struggle, but it was nothing compared to the nightmare that was bath time.

As Ten started to fill up the tub, the kids sensed what was coming, quickly running and hiding in different parts of the upper floor. When Ten was finally able to fetch Hendery, hidden behind a pot of plant, he returned to the water leaking from the bath, the faucet turned on for too long. Cursing under his breath, he opened the drain to let some of the water out, but in the meantime he lost Hendery again, the little boy running back to his room.

"Hendery! Come back here!" He called, already stressed out. Getting him in the hallway, Hendery kept kicking and screaming, making it almost impossible for Ten to take his clothes off. Eventually, he was able to do it and put Hendery sitting in the bath, which calmed him down almost immediately, getting distracted with the rubber duck and toys floating in the water. Two boys were left, though. 

Yangyang made less of a fuss, only whining a bit, and Ten imagined he still felt some sort of remorse for what had happened earlier. Xiaojun, though, kept on crying and screaming like getting a bath was the end of the world. Ten sighed in relief when he was finally able to put the boy in the water, but as he turned around to take the soap and shampoo, Xiaojun somehow got out of the bathtub and ran naked towards the stairs. Ten didn't even have time to think before the other two did the same thing, giggling as they ran past him completely naked, getting the floor all wet.

Ten ran after them, the hallway a complete chaos with three naked toddlers dripping water onto the floor, and Ten didn't even know who to catch first. Before he could do it, however, Xiaojun slipped on the wet floor and fell. Ten hurried to catch him, but the boy ended up hitting his head on the floor.

"Oh my god, Xiaojun!" Ten caught him in his arms and soothed the boy as he gave the loudest cry Ten had ever heard. His sobs of pain were heartwrenching and Ten was, once again, in a panic. "Hendery, Yangyang, please, I'm begging you, sit down and wait for just a bit, okay?"

Seeing his desperation, the boys nodded and sat back down on the floor, following Ten with their widened eyes as he walked around with Xiaojun in his arms. 

Ten grabbed an ice pack and placed it on the boy's head, sitting on the floor with the other two as he rocked a crying Xiaojun in his arms. Without him even asking, Hendery and Yangyang got up and made their way to their brother, hugging him from behind and caressing his arm with their tiny hands.

"You'll be okay, Junnie." Hendery murmured, giving his brother a kiss on his cheek. Ten almost cried with how cute the scene was. They really loved and cared for each other a lot, Kun had definitely raised them right.

Xiaojun stopped crying after a while, only letting out a few sniffs here and there, and Ten backed away to look at him, his face red with how much he cried.

"You okay, baby?" Xiaojun gave him a soft nod in response. "Does it still hurt?" He shook his head. Ten gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Will you three let me give you a bath now? Like good boys?" They all nodded, seeing how serious the situation got.

After finally being able to bathe and dress them, Ten told them to play in their bedroom while he took care of the mess they had made. He looked around and let out a big sigh. Ten was dripping wet from head to toe and the floor had little puddles here and there. He cleaned it all and hesitantly entered Kun's bedroom in search of something to wear, since he hadn't brought any change of clothes with him. He hadn't even imagined the actual chaos it would be and that he'd need to get out of his wet clothes.

Kun's room was immaculate. First of all, it smelled like lavender as soon as you walked in, due to the scented candles he had on his nightstand. No dirty clothes were thrown on the floor or on his bed, unlike Ten's own room, and it was all so organized and clean that it looked like a room from a magazine. 

Feeling like he was intruding or something, Ten opened Kun's closet to look for some clothes, trying his best to not mess up any of his perfectly folded shirts and shorts. He eventually settled for a black t-shirt with Saturn stamped in it that was quite big on him and some grey joggers. Ten couldn't help but smell the t-shirt and smile, realizing it smelled just like Kun's favorite perfume.

Going back to the kids' bedroom, afraid to leave them alone for too long, Ten found them quietly playing and already yawning, like they knew it was time for their afternoon nap. He was going to make them nap in their beds, but since they asked too cutely, Ten let them nap in his arms on the couch while watching cartoons. He nuzzled against them, between the comfortable scent of baby shampoo and even napped together with them for about an hour, like Kun had advised him to. 

Once it was time, Ten woke the boys up, who looked really cranky to have their sleep interrupted.

"You know what we could do until your dad comes home?" Ten tried to pull them out of their cranky mood with some fun activity. "We could bake cookies together!" They immediately widened their eyes and got up from the couch, excitedly.

Baking with the triplets wasn't as tough as Ten had thought, since all three of them were focused, like Johnny had told him, and they happily followed Ten's orders, learning how to crack an egg and mix cookie batter. They were specially enthusiastic when it was time to sprinkle m&m's into the dough, taking handfuls to put in their mouths in the process, of course. And, just as they had placed the cookies into the oven, they heard the door unlock and Kun arrive.

"Baba!" All three of them ran into their dad's legs, who bent down to hug them all at once.

"Wait, why are your hands and faces dirty with flour?" Kun frowned, looking at his kids.

"Baba, we made cookies!" Xiaojun exclaimed.

"You did?" Kun raised his eyebrows and looked at Ten, who was finishing with the dishes, an apron around his waist.

"I was going to clean them off before you arrived, but you came early." Ten explained, smiling at Kun as he stood back up and approached him in the kitchen. He was feeling like a housewife greeting the husband who came home from work. And, to be honest, it didn't feel so bad.

"Yeah, it ended earlier than I expected." He wrapped his arms around Ten's waist and held him in a close embrace, giving him a quick kiss on the neck. "Wait, are you wearing my clothes?"

He backed away to get a better look as Ten took off the apron, showing it to him.

"It's a long story that I'll tell you later, but yeah, I had to. Sorry."

"Oh no, it's no problem at all." Kun told him, still looking at how the clothes fit Ten. "They actually… Look great on you."

Ten raised an eyebrow, noticing a darker tone in his voice and realized what he actually meant.

"But, anyway." Kun shook his head, to not distract himself. "Did they actually help you bake or just watched?"

"They helped! I told them what to do." Ten told him as the kids followed them into the kitchen, skipping excitedly.

"Baba, I broke the egg!" Yangyang grinned from ear to ear with his task well accomplished.

"And I mixed!" Xiaojun told his part to his dad as well.

"And I put m&m's!" Hendery joined.

"Wow, you guys are actually bakers now!" Kun smiled at how happy his kids looked, then turned to Ten. "Thank you so much for doing this, I can see they loved it and I'm sure it wasn't easy for you." 

"Well, I plan to be in their lives for a long time, so I better get training." Ten told him, honestly, with a small smile on his lips. At those words, Kun just stared at him in silence for a couple of seconds, looking like a lot was running through his head. A lot and one thing in specific.

"I love you." He blurted out and, before Ten could even react to it, he pulled him in for a kiss.

"Kun..." Ten sighed between his lips, opening his eyes to see Kun's eyelids fluttering open, his strong gaze on him while he held a soft smile on his lips. He gave him another peck, before turning to his children, who weren't paying any attention to them, playing with some toys on the floor.

"Okay boys, now let's go play in the living room while we wait for the cookies because we're gonna eat those after dinner and baba still needs to cook a meal, alright?" The kids whined on their way to the living room, eager for the cookies, but complied anyway.

They ate a delicious dinner that Kun cooked for them, played a little with the boys until it was time for them to go to bed and Ten fondly watched from the doorway as the kids all huddled together around Kun in their cute animal print pajamas as he read them a book on one of the triplets' bed, with the lights dimmed low. They struggled against it, but soon their eyelids felt too heavy and they fell asleep leaning against their dad. 

Ten helped Kun put each of them in their beds and then went back with him to the living room couch to cuddle for a bit as they watched some TV.

"Tell me, how was your day?" Kun asked, caressing Ten's arm, the dreadful question.

"You really wanna know?" Ten looked at him and Kun nodded. "Honestly, I didn't expect it to be this chaotic and at some point I actually panicked and felt like crying, thinking I was doing everything wrong." 

Kun frowned, looking down at him, worried, but let him go on.

"At lunch, I turned my back on Yangyang for a second and he climbed the kitchen counter and dropped a jar of cookies on the floor, glass scattered all over the kitchen." Ten told him and Kun widened his eyes. "They all started crying at the same time, but I picked him up before he fell and nobody got hurt." Kun nodded, waiting for him to continue. 

"But, then, when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I tried to give them a bath, but they ended up running naked, dripping all over the house, and Xiaojun slipped and bumped his head. There was a lot of crying, but I immediately put ice on it and the pain faded away." Ten sighed, remembering the incidents of the day. "I think that was it, but it scared me so freaking much." He looked up at Kun. "I mean, you entrusted me with them, but I didn't think it would actually be this hard. I'm sorry that I made you think I could handle it… Do you hate me?" 

Kun was silent for a few seconds, thinking of what to say, but seemingly calm.

"You know, when they were babies, Yangyang once climbed to the top of his crib and fell from up there in the middle of the night. He didn't even get a scratch. But, there was another time where Hendery hit his head on the door and split his forehead a bit. Thankfully, he didn't need stitches, but it bled quite a lot." Kun told Ten. 

"The point is, scares happen all the time when you have a kid, even more when you're just one person taking care of three. It's impossible to keep an eye on them at all times. So, at the end of the day, what's important is to think that you did your best and none of them got badly hurt. They survived and so did you." He gave Ten a reassuring smile.

"And of course I don't hate you." He continued. "When you offered to do this, I was concerned because you had never done this before, but I wasn't worried for the kids, I was worried for you, that it would scare you off." Kun admitted. "But, you pulled through, the kids had fun with you and that's what's important."

"Thank you, Kun." Ten sighed, deeply, feeling like he got a weight off his shoulders from hearing that. He had never once taken care of a child before, let alone three. So, for all of these incidents to happen on his first try, it freaked him out. But, thankfully, Kun knew exactly what to say to calm him down.

Ten leaned in to give him a kiss and then looked at the clock. It was already past 10 pm, so he should really go home.

"I guess I gotta get going. My clothes should be dry already, so I'll just..." He began to stand up, but felt Kun's hand on his arm, gently keeping him in place.

"Actually… Don't you want to stay? Spend the night?"

"Oh." Ten breathed out, looking at Kun's suggestive eyes.

"You can sleep in my clothes and you don't even have work tomorrow, so..." Kun tried to convince him, but Ten was already more than convinced.

"Alright." Ten smiled at him, watching Kun grin back at him and give him a kiss.

"So, should we… Go to bed, then?" 

They made their way to Kun's bedroom, a palpable sexual tension standing between them, and, as soon as Ten closed the door behind him, Kun attacked his lips.

He pushed Ten against the door and devoured him, sliding in his tongue as his hands roamed inside Ten's shirt, slightly running his nails all over his back, giving him shivers through his spine. Ten let out a loud sigh and his hands started to roll down the pants he was wearing, moving Kun off of him with his hand on his chest as soon as he took them off.

"You wanted to see me like this, didn't you?" He smirked at Kun, seeing him look at Ten's bare legs under Kun's big t-shirt with dark eyes. He was wearing underwear, but the t-shirt covered it completely.

Kun walked back until he fell seated onto his mattress, his eyes never leaving Ten, who went over to sit on his lap, his legs on each side of Kun's hips. As he kissed Kun passionately, Ten started to grind his hips against Kun's, hearing him moan in return.

"Fuck, Ten… You're stunning." Kun murmured, moving to bite along Ten's neck and collarbones, his hands clasped on Ten's thighs as he continued to rock his hips, feeling Kun getting harder underneath him.

Ten's hands grabbed the hem of Kun's shirt, pulling them up and he complied, raising his arms and watching as Ten ran his fingers over Kun's abs.

"I've been going crazy about these ever since this morning." He said, giving Kun a sloppy kiss, that made it clear how much he loved his abs. Kun's hands on Ten's hips pulled him closer and he backed away from the kiss to look at Kun. "Do you want me to take this shirt off or would you like me to keep it on?" 

"I want to see you."

Ten nodded and took it off. Kun immediately began to kiss his chest, his hands squeezing on Ten's waist as Kun's lips went down to his nipples. He swirled the tip of his tongue around one of them while his finger played with the other, hearing the delighted sighs coming from Ten, who kept on rocking his hips on top of Kun, heat pooling down on his lower stomach.

"Come on, I want to see you." Ten said after having enough of grinding, getting on his knees on the floor and impatiently taking off Kun's pants. The other raised his hips to help him pull down his underwear and Ten smirked at the sight of Kun's big length, already quite hard. "Now, that's what I like to see."

He took Kun's cock in his hand and pumped it for a few times, running his thumb over the slit as he watched Kun shut his eyes, his breathing getting heavier. Ten leaned in and lightly brushed his lips against the head, teasing him with the tip of his tongue.

"Ten… Don't play with me like that." Kun groaned, his hands holding tight onto his sheets.

"Tell me what you want." Ten told him while giving him pecks all over his length, his free hand lazily playing with Kun's balls. One of the things he loved the most in bed was the teasing and seeing his partner lose it over his touches.

"I want to fuck your mouth."

Ten smirked at his words and instantly complied, taking Kun's cock between his lips and bobbing his head up and down while his fingers applied pressure on what he couldn't take. Kun sighed loudly and placed his hand on top of Ten's head, caressing his hair. His grip became stronger, though, once Ten fastened his pace, sucking diligently, completely focused on his task. Ten pulled out only to catch his breath, but his red and wet lips still wouldn't leave Kun's painfully hard length, licking him and, once again, teasing the head with the tip of his tongue.

Kun looked at him, mesmerized, and pulled on his bottom lip with his thumb, appreciating the view of his parted swollen lips. His hand, then, went to the back of Ten's head and gently pulled him back onto his dick. Ten smirked before engulfing him and Kun couldn't take it anymore, moving his hips to fuck the warmth of Ten's mouth, like he had said he would. That made him almost lose it completely and he had to contain himself in order to not come right then and there.

"Come here." He pulled Ten off of him and into a messy kiss, tasting his own pre-cum in Ten's mouth. As they kissed, Kun's hands went to Ten's underwear, but he didn't even get to pull it off before Ten had quickly taken it off himself, very eager.

"Lube?" He asked Kun, heavy breathing.

He pointed to the second drawer of his nightstand, but before Ten could complain that it was locked, Kun handed him a key that was hidden underneath his lamp. Childproof, Ten imagined.

Ten took the bottle of lube and condoms before going back to Kun and handing it to him. He took his face and leaned in for a passionate kiss, before moving to whisper in his ear.

"I'll need you to open me up because I really want to ride you."

Kun looked back at him with fire in his eyes, the desire clear in his open mouthed expression, chest moving up and down as his breath hitched.

Ten put his hand on Kun's chest, pushing him back into the bed until Kun sat with his back leaned against his pillows, and then proceeded to sit on Kun with his back facing him, moving forward to raise his butt in the air, ready for Kun's prepping.

Kun ran his hands over Ten's lower back and thighs for a while before giving his buttcheeks some soft kisses as he teased his entrance with a finger covered in lube. Ten had his head leaned on the mattress, looking back at Kun and not losing his gaze while he slid one finger inside him, a small gasp coming out of Ten's mouth. Kun gently massaged his walls for a while and entered another finger when he thought Ten could already take it. With his other hand, he rolled down a condom onto himself.

"Yes, right there. Oh..." Ten's cock twitched hanging in the air when Kun hit his spot, his hips unconsciously moving along with Kun's finger fucking. 

Ten hissed when Kun began to scissor his fingers inside him, but it was nothing he wasn't able to handle. When he thought it was enough, after the third finger had stretched him, Ten adjusted himself to sit on Kun's lap, facing him, as he took his length in his hand and teased it against his rim. The two of them never lost eye contact as Ten slowly sank into him. He felt so full that he could only take a few breaths for a couple of seconds, watching Kun caressing his thighs and torso, making sure that he felt okay. Fuck, Ten really won the lottery with this man. It was moments like this that he couldn't believe he was actually dating and fucking the hot dad he had seen a couple of months ago at his bakery.

Both of them moaned at the sensation when Ten began to slowly move his hips, his hands splayed on Kun's chest while the other held him firmly by the waist, Kun's fingers digging deep into his skin as Ten started to set a rhythm.

"You look so beautiful like this." Kun commented, admiring the sight of Ten so focused on riding him, his lips and eyes shut tight as his throat let out small moans with each up and down movement he made. It made Kun feel even more aroused, making sure to engrave that image in his brain.

"Yeah?" Ten spoke to him in a hoarse voice. "Good to know, 'cause I've been wanting to ride you for a long time now."

Those words made Kun feel in a daze, wrapping his hand around Ten's cock to make him feel as good as he did. The other opened his mouth with the sensation, fastening his pace when he felt Kun's fist run up and down his length in the same rhythm as his own hips, Kun's other hand roaming around Ten's torso up until his nipples, playing with them. There were so many ecstatic feelings at once that it was driving Ten insane.

"Fuck." Kun groaned once he started to feel like he was drowning in pleasure, engulfed by Ten's tight and warm walls. Ferocious, he planted his feet on the mattress, tightened a hold on Ten's sides and began to thrust his hips deep into him, jerking Ten forward to lie down on him.

"Fuck yes, Kun, right there." Ten moaned against his neck, feeling intoxicated in Kun's perfume mixed with the smell of sex in the air. He groaned when Kun wrapped his arms around his torso and continued to bury himself inside Ten, thrusting harder. He could feel his own cock swelling between him and Kun, stimulated by the friction, and felt his insides begin to throb, his entire body tensing up as he neared his edge. "I-I'm gonna come."

Kun was starting to lose strength, but with Ten's warning, he gathered all of his might to continue moving his hips at full speed, hearing Ten's desperate moans with each thrust he did. Chasing his orgasm as well, Kun growled loudly, feeling like he was going to combust when Ten finally came, nails dug deep into Kun's arms and walls clenching around his swollen cock. So, it didn't take long before the waves of pleasure hit him as well, making him feel like he was dissolving.

They both layed there in the same position for a while, weak, legs numb, as they tried to catch their breaths. Kun looked down at Ten and placed a kiss on his forehead before attempting to move from underneath him, getting an angry whine back from Ten.

"Where do you think you're going?" He mumbled against Kun's neck.

"To get some tissues to clean you, baby." Kun spoke in the sweetest voice possible and Ten felt his heart skip a beat, looking up at him with a small smile.

"I'm too lazy, but I do feel very sticky." Ten told him his internal debate.

"You want me to take you to the shower? I can clean you off and massage your scalp." Kun offered.

"Hmm. Am I dreaming?" Ten nuzzled his head back into the crook of Kun's neck, getting a kiss on his temple before he felt himself being lifted up from the bed and carried into the shower.

That night, after wearing another change of clean clothes Kun had borrowed him and being spooned by him underneath his soft sheets, Ten slept like a baby.

He also got woken up by babies, all three of them climbing on the bed and on top of Ten.

"Ten-ge, wake up." Hendery's tiny hands shook Ten's shoulders then cupped his face, squishing his cheeks.

In a swift move, Ten got a hold of him and laid the boy down beside him, tickling his tummy and giving him a bunch of kisses. He could also feel some jumping from beside him, so Ten turned around to see both Xiaojun and Yangyang on top of their father, trying to wake him up.

"I'm up, I'm up." Kun's free hand went to his face, trying to rub the sleep off of it, while his other arm was still underneath Ten's neck. Ten turned around to set his arm free and Hendery climbed up to sit on his belly while Yangyang threw himself between Ten and Kun and Xiaojun sat on top of his dad.

"Good morning." Kun looked at him with a warm smile on his lips.

"Morning." Ten smiled back.

"Sorry you had to wake up like this." He apologized, adjusting Xiaojun's dinosaur pajamas. "This is basically how I wake up everyday." Ten was about to say it was fine, he quite liked it actually, but Yangyang interrupted him.

"Baba, is Ten-ge gonna live with us?"

"Uh..." Kun looked between Yangyang and Ten, nervously, not expecting that so early in the morning. Of course, the questions would come, eventually. They just hadn't decided on how to explain them yet. "No, baobei, Ten just had a sleepover."

"You married Ten-ge, baba?" Xiaojun asked all of a sudden, which made both of them widen their eyes.

"We… What? Why do you think that?" Kun stuttered.

"Because you kissed yesterday. Couples kiss, right?" He explained, like it was that simple. "The little mermaid and the prince got married and kissed." 

"Right..." Kun pondered on what to say. His kids were too smart for his own good. Ten just let him, no idea of what to answer as well. Also, he wanted to see how Kun would explain it to them. "Well, Ten and I are together, baby. But we're not married. We don't need to be married to kiss."

The kids hummed, like they understood. Ten thought it was a good response, the two of them hadn't even properly talked about their relationship or decided on what they were yet, so there was no better way to explain it to the kids. He thought they should have this conversation soon, though, set some boundaries. 

Ten was waiting for more questions to come, but the kids quickly distracted themselves and forgot about the subject. 

"Baba, pancakes?" Hendery asked him and, with a nod from Kun, all three of them ran to the kitchen.

Once they were alone, Kun simply took Ten's face in his hands and gave him a big kiss with his lips quirked up in a smile. Ten's heart fluttered with the sudden gesture and he felt, through Kun's tight grip and his tender gaze at Ten as he stood up and went to the kitchen, that there were a lot of things Kun was feeling and wanted to tell him, but probably didn't want to ruin their happy little bubble.

Maybe this was Kun's dream, waking up everyday beside the person you loved with your cute kids jumping on you. That was probably everyone's dream. But, was it Ten's?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh, what could come next?  
> This fic might have around 5 chapters, guys, not a long one. But, please let me know what you think of it so far in the comments! Thanks for reading!


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